A St. Cloud apartment building could soon become a 66-resident sober housing facility, but city planning staff are recommending that the Zoning Board of Appeals reject the plan over lot-size and code compliance concerns. The board takes up the conditional use permit request from 2535 Alive LLC at a public hearing set for 6 p.m. Tuesday.
The proposal, first reported by KNSI, would convert a 15-unit apartment building at 1120 9th Avenue South into a certified recovery residence licensed by the Minnesota Department of Human Services. The applicant originally sought a maximum occupancy of 88 residents but has since revised that figure down to 66, according to the outlet's reporting.
Even at the reduced number, city planning staff found the numbers didn't add up. Comparable recovery or transitional housing facilities in St. Cloud typically provide somewhere between about 833 and nearly 6,548 square feet of lot area per resident, the station reported, while the 9th Avenue South property would offer just 421 square feet per resident at 66 occupants. The site also carries existing non-compliance with rear yard open space, total lot open space, and interior side setback standards, issues that predate this proposal, per the same reporting.
What City Staff Want to Know
Beyond the density math, St. Cloud city planners have asked for more detail before they'd be comfortable recommending approval. Per the station's report, planners want specifics on the facility's intake procedures, its staffing levels, and more background on 2535 Alive LLC's track record operating sober housing elsewhere.
Some of those questions have answers already on the public record. 2535 Alive describes itself as a faith-rooted recovery residence organization co-founded by Jaden Ghylin, Jim Boo, and Craig Williams, based in North Branch and named for the biblical passage Matthew 25:35. The organization says it already operates DHS-certified supportive housing across Minnesota, including in Rochester, Duluth, St. Paul, and Mankato. It describes its model as non-clinical post-treatment supportive housing that partners with established addiction treatment providers, taking resident referrals from organizations such as Teen Challenge and Partners in Behavioral Health, rather than offering detox or medical treatment on-site.
A Costly Conversion and a Building's Past
Converting the building's use from multi-family housing to licensed sober supportive housing would also trigger a net sewer and water access charge of $24,800, the report noted. The property itself has a rougher recent history: in June 2023, a vehicle fire spread to a second car and damaged the apartment building, forcing a brief evacuation and causing an estimated $30,000 in damage, according to KNSI's earlier coverage of the incident.
Under Article 4 of the city's Land Development Code, major conditional use permit applications like this one must go through a formal public hearing before the Zoning Board of Appeals, which evaluates neighborhood traffic, public safety, and site compatibility before issuing a decision, according to the City of St. Cloud's zoning ordinance. St. Cloud's Zoning Board has handled contentious supportive-housing cases before — in January 2025, the City Council heard an appeal over conditions attached to a conditional use permit for the Lincoln Center shelter on Lincoln Avenue Southeast following neighborhood complaints about safety and illegal activity, according to city records.
State Law Is Moving Fast Toward Recovery Housing
The St. Cloud debate is unfolding against a backdrop of rapid change at the state level. Under Minnesota Statutes sections 254B.21 through 254B.216, passed during the 2025 legislative session, the state established a voluntary Department of Human Services certification framework for recovery residences and created legal title protections for the terms sober home and recovery residence, according to state statute. On May 17, 2026, the Legislature passed human services budget provisions accelerating that certification timeline and Housing Support Program eligibility by six months, moving the effective start date up to July 1, 2026, per the Minnesota Department of Human Services.
Industry oversight for sober housing in Minnesota also runs through the Minnesota Association of Sober Homes, the state affiliate of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences, which conducts site inspections and enforces operational guidelines independent of state licensing, according to Vanderburgh Sober Living. In July 2026, state lawmakers introduced Senate File 5042 to create a work group specifically tasked with reviewing conflicts between local zoning ordinances and recovery residence access statewide, according to the Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes.
That state push runs alongside federal housing law that could complicate any denial St. Cloud issues. Under the federal Fair Housing Act and Americans with Disabilities Act, individuals in recovery from substance use disorder are classified as disabled, which prohibits local governments from enforcing discriminatory land-use rules or unreasonable density restrictions against sober group homes, according to research published by the Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. Federal courts have frequently struck down local conditional use permit denials that restrict recovery residences, the same research notes — a legal backdrop the Zoning Board of Appeals will need to weigh alongside the density and code concerns raised by St. Cloud's own planning staff on Tuesday night.
