A local property manager is suing Klean Treatment Centers for not paying rent at a sober living facility in Astoria.

Sean Fitzpatrick and his wife, Anne Carpenter, own a 12-unit apartment complex on Alameda Avenue they rent to the regional drug and alcohol treatment center for 40 sober living beds. The company also rents office space from the couple at 12th and Exchange streets for an outpatient treatment center.

“They were often behind on their payments, but their chief operating officer was good about staying in communication and letting me know when they would pay,” Fitzpatrick said of the apartments. “They usually got caught up, then fell behind again. They stopped paying rent this summer, then after some personnel changes and promises that were not kept, stopped communicating with us altogether.”

Fitzpatrick and Carpenter, under their property management company Wecoma Partners, recently filed a lawsuit against Well in Mind, a California-based nonprofit under which Klean leased the apartment complex.

In the lawsuit, Fitzpatrick’s lawyers claim Klean had agreed to rent the complex for $13,000 a month but had fallen behind by more than $44,000.

“We are currently working with the landlord to resolve this matter,” Erica Messenger, an administrative assistant for Klean, wrote in an email. “We have no further comment at this time.”

Klean is also behind on rent at the downtown office it has rented for more than three years and has been locked out, but still has furniture and other equipment inside, Fitzpatrick said.

“If they get caught up, they are welcome to continue business there,” he said. “Otherwise, I’ll put the space up for lease or figure out a new use.”

Based in Los Angeles, Klean has locations in Astoria, Portland, Bend, La Pine and Long Beach, Washington, where it runs an inpatient treatment center. The company’s possible departure puts into jeopardy the region’s only outpatient treatment center with a dedicated sober living facility.

Earlier this year, Sunspire Health closed the two drug treatment centers it operated at Astoria Pointe above Uniontown and the Rosebriar, a female-only facility on 14th Street. The closure left Clatsop County with no inpatient treatment options.

Other outpatient drug and alcohol treatment centers include North Coast Recovery on 30th Street, Potentials on Pier 39, Choices Counseling in the Red Building and Awakenings by the Sea in Seaside.

The treatment options are slimmer for low-income patients on the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s version of Medicaid, with Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare and Choices the main avenues for drug and alcohol treatment.

Wendy Hemsley, the CEO of North Coast Recovery and the neighboring North Coast Medical Clinic, said she only knows of one other sober living facility in the county, the independently run Oxford House in Warrenton.

“I would love to do an inpatient center,” she said. “We need the services. I just don’t have the financial ability to do it.”

Alan Evans, the CEO of social service group Helping Hands, said the issues faced by struggling treatment centers boil down to health insurance companies.

“The struggle is it becomes about money and it becomes about survival,” he said. “It changes from serving the people to keeping our doors open.”

The issue is nationwide and part of why organizations like his avoid dealing with private health insurers when possible. “Our organizations can’t count on them,” Evans said.

Hemsley echoed Evans’ comments about how subjective and erratic health insurers can be when reimbursing for treatment. Patients also often can’t afford the out-of-pocket deductibles to pay for treatment, she said.

Evans lauded the work done by Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare and Choices, which is partnering to provide treatment while Helping Hands will provide housing at a new homeless facility in Uniontown, he said.

Fitzpatrick has rented the Alameda complex to Klean for nearly two years, after three years of renting to Astoria Pointe. Tenants in the apartments have mostly been good neighbors and have not caused many issues, he said.

“In general, I am open to renting to people in recovery,” he said.

While he didn’t want to sue the company and endanger the sober living space, Klean left him no choice, Fitzpatrick said.