On a quiet residential street in the heart of Haymount, a dispute has erupted over a sober living home that recently opened its doors. Neighbors oppose the facility and the City of Fayetteville said it isn’t permitted.
City officials said they are working to bring the operation into compliance. The owner claimed the city is violating federal protections for people with disabilities but declined to say how.
April Helene Iannazzone, a Florida‑based social media entrepreneur, bought the home in January. She promotes herself as a budding real‑estate and wealth‑building influencer. She has launched a website for the sober living home, which is part of what she calls the North Carolina House of Hope, and a Facebook page. She has also posted about it on her personal Facebook page.
Neighbors of the home, which is located at 443 Rollingwood Circle, quickly organized to oppose the sober living facility when they learned of Iannazzone’s plans in early April. They said they were not notified about the facility and that it violates the city’s ordinance regulating “a community reintegration center.”
Iannazzone’s Plan for Rollingwood Circle
According to public records, Iannazzone has spent most of her life in Florida as an entrepreneur dabbling in businesses including event management and the beauty and wellness industry.
Iannazzone has recently cast herself as a rising real‑estate investor. On a podcast published on February 26, she said she has been investing for “a year and a half,” inspired by other influencers. She described her strategy as “perfect passive income,” saying she wants to “just get a check out of a mailbox” while others handle the work.
Iannazzone told podcast host Ashley Jeffers that she would accept people recently released from incarceration or rehab, excluding those with records of violent or sexual offenses. Residents, she said, must work or attend school, complete 90 recovery meetings in 90 consecutive days with an organization like Alcoholics Anonymous, participate in random drug testing, and share chores at the home.
Sober living facilities, sometimes referred to as recovery residences or transitional housing, provide an alcohol- and drug-free environment for people in recovery.
Iannazzone said she will hire a house manager to oversee the sober living home, conduct drug tests, and verify attendance at recovery meetings. She added that she will allow people to move in without a job, expecting them to find one within 30 to 60 days. Operating the facility will be funded entirely through rent payments, which range from $200 to $230 per bed per week, she said on the podcast.
The Rollingwood Circle home, which has three bedrooms and 2.5 baths, can house seven people, she said.
On the podcast, Iannazzone said she has been reaching out to rehab facilities in the state to tell them about the home. The home hosted an open house on March 23, according to its Facebook page, and as early as March 3 promoted itself as “now open.”
According to her website, Iannazzone’s sober living home business “was created to provide a welcoming, supportive sober living environment for individuals transitioning from rehab or early in their recovery journey.” Her North Carolina House of Hope website lists sober living facilities in Fayetteville and Charlotte. The Charlotte facility is opening sometime in April, according to a social media post. The name of the business is similar to House of Hope North Carolina, which is a Christian treatment center in Clayton that’s operated since 1998.
City: The Business Is Not Allowed
On April 1, the city sent Iannazzone a letter stating the facility is not permitted and does not comply with zoning regulations. Sober living homes are not allowed in mixed residential areas, known as MR‑5 zoning districts, Development Services Director Gerald Newton wrote in the letter.
“Facilities that support individuals in transition are important,” Newton wrote, “but we must ensure compliance with the City’s zoning regulations and maintain the safety and security of our residential neighborhoods.”
City Councilmember Malik Davis, whose District 2 includes the home, said he looked into the matter after hearing from residents. “Any type of group living facility or housing that differs from traditional residential use must go through the proper channels,” he told CityView. “The concerns raised by residents are valid.”
In 2020, the City Council denied a special use permit for a proposed halfway house on Cain Road. The halfway house sued the city, saying the permit was unjustly denied. In 2022 the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled against the city, clearing the way for the project to move forward.
In 2023, the council further tightened its rules for sober living homes and halfway houses in or near residential areas.
Neighbors Push Back
Residents said they repeatedly tried to get answers from Iannazzone—in person, online, and through social media—but described her responses as evasive, dismissive, or quickly deleted.
“You’re not interested in the actual needs of this community,” said Karl Thoreson, who lives across the street from the property. “You’re not willing to answer any questions.”
Iannazzone has filed for bankruptcy twice—once in 2007 for personal consumer debt, and again in 2024 for business debts totaling $383,972.59 tied to three now‑defunct companies. She has also lost two homes to foreclosure.
In March, a judge in Osceola County, Florida entered a $40,000 default judgment against Iannazzone’s A Zone Venture after Marriott Hotel Services sued over a canceled December 2023 event.
Thoreson said that someone with “such a reckless past” is not equipped to provide stability for people in their recovery journey. “I can easily see past financial woes contributing to the degradation of services offered and upkeep of the homes they have opted to take over,” he said.
Doug Ray, who lives a couple houses away, said the project feels disingenuous. “She’s not doing anything for our community, because we are not her community,” he said. “She does not care about the people living in that house. This is just a passive income scheme for her.”
Ray said even if the zoning issue were resolved, he would still oppose the home. “Find me anyone who would say yes to this on their street,” he said. “We’re not going to let you stack wealth on the backs of the people in this community.”
Paula Pranka said children in the neighborhood are her biggest concern. “You have children running up and down the street, and there’s no oversight,” she said. “Relapse—and what does that look like when children are around?”
Pranka lives a few houses away from the property.
Thoreson, who plans to sell his home this summer, said the sober living home next door could depress his property value. “If anybody does their research and sees this, they’re not gonna want to buy this house,” he said.
Residents said they support recovery services—just not this project, in this location, run by someone they feel has not been transparent.
“I wholeheartedly believe in helping people,” Thoreson said. “But I’m not going to do it in a way that negatively affects the environment around here or my fellow neighbors.”
How Iannazzone Acquired the House
Public records show that Iannazzone did not use a traditional mortgage to buy 443 Rollingwood Circle in January. Instead, she used a trust based in Wyoming called 443 Rollingwood Circle Trust. In recorded documents, she signs as: “April Helene Iannazzone, as Member of PropertiQ Homes LLC, Trustee.”
PropertiQ Homes LLC, also based in Wyoming, was formed in April 2025 through a commercial registered agent service. The LLC lists no members or managers, providing a structure that keeps the true owner off public records.
The trust acquired the home on January 21 using a “subject‑to” arrangement, a type of deal in which the buyer takes ownership of a property while leaving the existing mortgage in the seller’s name.
The seller had a mortgage guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The mortgage stayed in the seller’s name, while Iannazzone’s trust received title to the property.
To secure the arrangement, the parties signed a wrap‑around deed of trust—a secondary loan layered on top of the original mortgage. That document explicitly acknowledges that transferring the property this way “would violate the underlying lien,” meaning Veterans United Home Loans could legally demand immediate repayment of the full loan balance if it discovered the transfer.
On the same day, the trust recorded two private loans against the property—one for $57,450, due in July, and another for $10,000, due April 21—creating three layers of debt on the house. The documents also bar the seller from modifying or even contacting their mortgage lender without Iannazzone’s written consent.
Bradley Brekke, who owned the Rollingwood house, told CityView that Iannazzone “definitely took advantage of our situation.” He said he had recently left the Army and rented his house to tenants for a year “because the market made it impossible to sell at the time.”
He also racked up roughly $28,000 in plumbing and HVAC repairs, which led to a lien on his property, Brekke said. The city’s April 1 letter to Iannazzone said the new HVAC system needs to be inspected.
Brekke said Iannazzone called him and “offered the ‘take over payments’ scheme and frankly we had to do it or face foreclosure.”
Iannazzone denied taking advantage of Brekke. “I stepped in and helped him out of a desperate situation,” she told CityView.
Veterans United Home Loans, which provided Brekke with the mortgage, declined to comment when asked if the company allowed this type of real estate transaction.
Iannazzone’s Claims—and What Records Show
In a written statement to CityView, Iannazzone disputed the city’s handling of the situation and described the neighborhood’s reaction as harassment. “The City has never cited a single specific ordinance, code provision, or formal written determination that applies to this property,” she wrote.
Iannazzone also said the home “has no residents. No services are delivered there. No staff operate from it.” She said that residents that the facility will eventually serve are protected under the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, both federal laws that prohibit discrimination based on several categories. She described the city’s “level of response” as “not routine.”
She further accused Davis of abusing his power as a city councilmember, claiming he “resides in the neighborhood of 443 Rollingwood Circle—giving him a direct personal interest in the outcome of this matter.” Iannazzone said Davis called her and directed staff on how to handle her case.
A search of public records shows that Davis lives in Huske Heights off Bragg Boulevard about a 2-minute drive from the Rollingwood Circle home.
Davis said he tried to facilitate a conversation between concerned residents and Iannazzone.
“I have a right to advocate for my district and the citizens on Rollingwood,” he said. “I simply tried to have a conversation with both parties so that we can come to a common resolution. She did not want to hear anything contradicting what she wanted.”
Iannazzone said she filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development against the city and Davis. CityView asked for a copy of these complaints but Iannazzone did not respond.
Asked if she has any experience in sober living or the substance abuse recovery field, Iannazzone said no. “I am a founder, not a clinician,” she wrote.
“I have invested significant time, resources, and personal commitment into building something that fills a real need in this community,” she wrote. “Passion, preparation, and accountability matter more than a resume in this work—and I have all three.”
She added that she is attempting to obtain a North Carolina Association of Recovery Residences (NCARR) level 2 certification. NCARR is the North Carolina affiliate of National Alliance for Recovery Residences, a nonprofit organization that establishes and maintains national quality standards for recovery residences.
A level 2 certification covers “monitored” recovery homes—residences that provide structure, drug testing, and house rules but do not offer clinical services or licensed treatment on site.
Iannazzone attributed her 2024 bankruptcy, foreclosures, and the recent $40,000 judgment to “a single period—a business destroyed by COVID‑19 event cancellations.”
Her 2024 bankruptcy petition, however, showed business income of $68,986 in 2022, $59,757 in 2023, and $11,784 in 2024, and shows that the vast majority of her business debt was incurred in late 2023 and into 2024, long after coronavirus pandemic restrictions ended. The Marriott lawsuit is over a December 2023 event in Florida.
Iannazzone declined to explain how the pandemic affected the December 2023 event. “I am not going to continue elaborating on individual claims or questions beyond what I have already shared,” she said. She also declined to answer additional follow‑up questions.
Government reporter Rachel Heimann Mercader can be reached at rheimann@cityviewnc.com or 910-988-8045.
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