Peer recovery centers rise as funding goes to opioid addiction relief

Devon Sanders, 50, gazed across the street where Riverside Hospital once was. This hospital was a crucial place for recovering addicts in the Third Ward. Now, the building sits abandoned, condemned, and vandalized.

Riverside Hospital located on Elgin street was a historically black hospital built in 1927 and closed in 2014.

Sanders is now a member of the Center for Recovery and Wellness Resources. “I was addicted to painkillers and crystal meth. I almost lost my life to drugs, and after the hospital closed I knew I had to look for some type of help somewhere else,” he said.

The Center for Recovery and Wellness is a part of the Houston Recovery Initiative (HRI). HRI is a chapter of Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care (ROSC). ROSC works as a federal system that establishes recovery relief measures in each state, with each city having it’s own chapter.

The Center for Recovery and Wellness Resources is a new addition to the Houston Recovery Initiative.

As opioid use has become an epidemic in the country, the government has given states grants to combat addiction and rising levels of overdoses. According to Louisa Parson the ROSC coordinator of Abilene, Texas has been awarded some $27 million in grants. Parson said “Opioid addiction is a growing problem, especially in the nation’s biggest cities, including Houston.”

“There has been enough funding to hire a lot of peer recovery coaches in Texas,” Parson said. With the rising need of opioid treatment, new peer recovery centers, like the Center for Recovery and Wellness Resources, have been funded with grants. Parson said these types of centers are rising quickly in Texas cities.

With the increase of peer recovery centers, there has been a drift from traditional clinical rehabilitation facilities. Dorothy West, program director for the Center for Recovery and Wellness Resources, said “Peer recovery centers are places where sobriety is guided through the help of a recovery coach, which I train here myself.” West quit drinking fourteen years ago and felt she had a lot of experience and could be useful to local addicts who wanted to turn their lives around. “Recovery is a celebration. Most people see and think of recovery as a dull thing, but here it’s all about celebrating the beginning of a new and better life.”

Peer recovery centers have a tight grip on their members’ social pressures that could possibly drive them to do drugs again. West said the center has no time limit because there is always a struggle to do drugs post treatment. “That’s why coaches are viewed as peers, because we’re here to be a supportive friend when things outside could be a trigger. We even relocate those who know a lot of people around the neighborhood and could easily go back to doing drugs,” said West.

Another peer-oriented recovery center is the Recenter, which used to be a men’s shelter. They reopened their doors in 2015 to include women that need help with addiction.

Steven Brinkman, the center’s executive director, said “We operate seven buildings within three blocks, with a residential capacity of about 200. In a nutshell, we endorse the 12-step model and host weekly meetings that are open to the public. We don’t have any clinical staff, so there’s no doctors or nurses or nothing like that.”

The Recenter hosts numerous meetings throughout the week in their meeting house pictured above.

“We are funded by the government, which includes any type of grant, and by donors that we are thankful for…We do have a lot of people who come in struggling with opioid addiction, which can range from OxyContin and heroine,” Brinkman said.

John Adams, 51, came to the Recenter January of this year after battling addiction for ten years. He has been sober for 90 days and is undergoing in-patient treatment. “I was tired, begging, homeless, and totally exhausted… I went to rehab, and they sent me here saying that the people here would make sure I stayed off drugs,” said Adams. He must stay clean to keep his room at the Recenter’s housing unit because of their strict zero tolerance policy.

John Adams, 51, sits with another member in the center’s Serenity Gardens located behind Recenter’s main office building.

Devon Sanders has seen many fall victim to Houston’s underground drug culture. He finished smoking his cigarette and with a sly grin on his face said “I think things will get better. I have hope that my friends or people in the neighborhood will look for help that is available to them.”