Homes illegally rented to people with serious mental illnesses

County licensing and law enforcement officials are planning to meet this week to decide how to deal with a local family that has been illegally renting rooms in the Cambridge Estates subdivision to people with serious mental illness.

Magistrate Court Judge June Davis on Nov. 1 fined Narquitta Street $616 for illegally operating two businesses out of her home at 926 Downing Drive ¬ – one a barbershop that her husband Marlo Yarbrough operated in the garage and the other a “transition house” for six mentally ill adults unrelated to the family.

During that court hearing, officials learned of a second house nearby at 1144 Otis Drive where two mentally ill adults were under the care of Priscilla Streete, who is a relative of Narquitta Street and spells her last name differently.

Barrow County deputy Yvonne Petty, who works full time in the county planning department to enforce county codes, issued Pricilla Streete a citation, and her case is to be heard in Barrow County Magistrate Court in December.

The fine issued to Yarbrough and Street is a daily fine of $616 for both businesses, but local officials do not know if the couple is continuing to rent the rooms.
No one responded to a reporter’s knocks at the door of either home Tuesday afternoon.

Both homes have been operating under the radar of local and state regulatory officials, and Sheriff Jud Smith said he is very concerned about the situation due to multiple domestic violence complaints in the years before the family began renting rooms to the mentally ill.

Last year, Yarbrough and his were both found guilty of misdemeanors stemming from one of their domestic disputes, and each was sentenced to 12 months’ probation and fined $500.

Because the couple has never applied for a business license or a special use permit to operate a personal care home, county officials do not know how long they have been renting rooms to people with mental illness.