State Regulators Open Inquiry Into Santa Monica Sober Living Home Where Presley Gerber Died

California regulators have opened an inquiry into the Santa Monica sober living home where Presley Gerber died on Sept. 20 of a suspected overdose, according to the state agency involved.

The Department of Health Care Services, acting on a complaint from a rehab reform advocate, is examining whether the home, Resolutions Living, was illegally offering services that call for a state license, spokesman Anthony Cava said Friday. "DHCS does not oversee sober living homes, and would only investigate sober living homes to determine if they are operating as an unlicensed treatment facility in violation of state law," Cava said. He said no further information was available.

Resolutions Living, which describes itself as a "recovery residence," occupies a home on Berkeley Street that is valued at $7.7 million and has seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms. It does not hold a DHCS license and would not need one so long as no addiction treatment takes place at the facility or is delivered by its staff. Sober living homes are meant to offer only a place to live for people recovering from substance use disorders.

The home has a sister operation, Resolutions Therapeutic Services, an outpatient treatment center on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica. Psychologist Reza Nabavi founded both. The outpatient center is also unlicensed by DHCS, and it is unclear whether it must be, given state rules that reform advocates describe as confusing and full of loopholes. Nabavi did not respond to multiple emails and voicemails seeking comment.

The complaint was filed by Jennifer Turner, a reform advocate whose daughter was injured at an unrelated mental health treatment center in 2016. "A 27-year-old man entered this environment seeking help and was dead the following morning," Turner wrote. "Regardless of the ultimate cause of death, the circumstances warrant a thorough regulatory investigation into the facility."

Gerber was the son of supermodel Cindy Crawford and businessman Rande Gerber. His death has put the Resolutions businesses in a harsh spotlight and raised questions over whether the state does enough to protect people with substance use problems who turn to such operations. The Southern California News Group has spent nearly a decade investigating fraud, abuse and death in California's private-pay addiction treatment system. Many laws have changed as a result, but a low bar for expertise in opening a home, weak oversight and a lack of basic medical support have contributed to fatal overdoses in licensed and unlicensed facilities alike.

Turner's complaint asks whether Gerber needed a higher level of care yet was admitted to a facility not authorized to provide detoxification, withdrawal management, residential substance-use treatment or other clinical services. She also urged regulators to scrutinize the company's marketing. Its website, she noted, uses phrases such as "mental health recovery residence," "recovery program," "individual recovery plans" and "three-phase recovery program," and describes "24/7 onsite staff." She argued that if group sessions are held at the home, it would be subject to regulation.

Angela McMahon, a licensing and accreditation consultant, said the treatment arm also "sits in a gray area" in its advertising. She said it appears to operate mainly as a mental health center, which likely would not need a DHCS license, but its website headline reads "Mental Health, Trauma, and Addiction Treatment," and it has a dedicated substance use disorder page that advertises relapse prevention. Promoting that treatment, she said, "could be argued as treating it as a primary diagnosis," which could require a license.

The complaint also asks why Gerber was accepted if he was visibly intoxicated on arrival, instead of being referred to a licensed withdrawal-management, detoxification, emergency medical or residential treatment setting. Turner wants DHCS to determine what assessment was done, who decided to admit him, what that person's qualifications were and what procedures were followed. She further asked whether staff were monitoring his medical condition or withdrawal, or managing medications, and whether the home was providing regulated services beyond the lawful scope of sober housing.