New apartments at the OneFifteen addiction treatment campus in Dayton, which have 29 units and 58 beds, will help fill this need. The first clients will be served today.
Finding safe housing can be an uphill battle for people trying to recover from addiction. People often have some kind of criminal record related to addiction, which can be a deal breaker on many applications for safe housing and living wage jobs.
“For sober living, you need a safe place. It’s hard for people getting out of treatment to get a safe place,” Families of Addicts Executive Director Anita Kitchen said.
At sober living homes, people recover together by staying for the short term in group living settings, which can help people ease back into a new lifestyle. But many operate in models with little regulatory oversight.
Kitchen said it can be hard locally to find available quality sober living options and it is important that OneFifteen is safe, regulated, and that the apartments are connected to a quality treatment center.
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
While it’s only 58 spots and the need is large, Kitchen said the project is exciting because it means more quality sober living homes than were available before OneFifteen.
The apartments, called OneFifteen Living, are in a three-story, 29-unit building in the Carillon neighborhood campus. The OneFifteen campus is also home to crisis stabilization and detox service, which offers an alternative to the ER, and has an outpatient treatment center.
Patients reach critical moments during transitions, such as leaving the hospital after being stabilized or moving from intense care to less intensive treatment. The OneFifteen campus -- by Premier Health, Kettering Health, RI International and Google-affiliate Verily ― is supposed to help prevent the risk of relapse during these moments by making transitions smooth and under one umbrella.
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
This is one level of care within an entire continuum of care, said Marti Taylor, CEO of OneFifteen.
“We believe this level of care is very important for those individuals that need that additional time to get back again, whether it’s finding the right job, whether it’s finding housing, whether it’s just reunifying with their community or their family,” Taylor said.
The need locally is significant. Dayton was an epicenter of opioid deaths during the height of the opioid crisis, when 566 people died from accidental overdose deaths in Montgomery County and with others still alive and trying to maintain sobriety.
Through intensive effort, deaths slowed and there were 289 and 288 fatalities in 2018 and 2019. During the pandemic, accidental overdoses climbed back up to 323 lives lost and about 133 deaths have been reported so far this year.
People can get referred to the apartments from OneFifteen’s other services, from Samaritan Behavioral Health or other organizations, like a treatment center that doesn’t have a recovery housing option.
The other parts of the campus like crisis treatment take all patients regardless of ability to pay, but the residential living does not take the uninsured. Operators expect most patients will be covered with Medicaid and said they are working on funding for covering the uninsured.
Taylor said the clients can get five hours of medical treatment during the week.
“In addition to that, it’s really helping them get back integrated into the community,” Taylor said.
The apartments have shared living space, a kitchen, a gym, access to a garden and basketball court, computer area, and space for yoga and meditation.
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
How to get help
If having an emergency, call 911.
To find local service providers for addiction, rehab, mental health and more in Montgomery County, download the GetHelpNow at gethelpnowmc.com to search the interactive directory.
To reach the Crisis Text Line, text the keyword “4hope” to 741 741 to reach a trained crisis counselor.
For Montgomery County 24/7 crisis care, call Samaritan Behavioral Health at 937-224-4646.
Families of Addicts educates, empowers and embraces families, friends and people struggling with addiction. More information is at facebook.com/FOAfamilies or foafamilies.org.
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