Controversial Elmhurst Sober Home Clears Hurdle

ELMHURST, IL — A key Elmhurst City Council committee recommended on Monday allowing a sober living home on the city's north side.

The three-member Development, Planning and Zoning Committee voted unanimously for the recommendation, with conditions. The home, which has seven residents, is already in existence at 348 N. Larch Ave., but is seeking official city approval. The issue next goes to the full City Council.

The home is designed to help men with addictions.

Alderman Mark Mulliner, a member of the committee, said one of the conditions is that the permit would go away if the group running the home, Carpenter's Tool Ministries, changes. Also, if the home violated any number of rules, Mulliner said, it would be shut down.

Mulliner said the city needs to change its code to address sober homes.

City staff has been watching the developments in Hinsdale's battle with a sober living home, Mulliner said. The federal government sued the village because of its efforts to close the home. The government maintains Hinsdale violated the home's rights under the Fair Housing and Americans With Disabilities acts.

"There were significant differences between what we have done and what (Hinsdale) has done — technically, things they hadn't done right," Mulliner said.

In Elmhurst, the sober home on Larch Avenue started in 2018. A year later, one of its residents died from a heroin overdose.

The home now has seven residents, which is the number that Mulliner said the committee recommended. Neighbors are opposed to allowing the sober home.

The property's landlord, Gary Vician, a former Naperville Township trustee, has had issues at the house for years before it became a sober living home.

In 2006, the Elmhurst Independent newspaper published a story about the problems at Vician's property. At the time, then-Ward 2 Alderwoman Jan Vanek said as many as 10 unrelated people lived in the house.

"From what I understand, the police are there two or three times a week," Vanek told the Independent. "They've had fires. One fire was started when a resident tried to burn rubber off some copper piping."

Vician defended himself in a story in Patch last week.