Mark Walters

mwalters@ydr.com

Laurie Donovan says the life skills she learned in drug rehab were minimal compared to what she learned by living for a year in a York recovery house.

It doesn't even bother Donovan, who is 50, that she's the oldest person in the house.

"It gives me the role to want to be successful, to set an example for a lot of girls who come in and feel defeated," Donovan said.

But some are wary of the role played by the houses, which are unregulated, mostly for-profit businesses and, at least in York, aren’t able to show how effective they are in helping a recovering addict get and stay sober.

"We're producing a community of houses that generate a lot of revenue for the people who own the houses," said Matthew Carey, executive director of the York Rescue Mission. "I'm not saying we don't have a need for these houses, but we need to get some regulations around them."

The York Daily Record found 81 recovery homes in York city that serve nearly 500 people, including several used by the county's probation department when paroled drug offenders have no place to live. Generally, someone who lives in one has to get a job, pay rent and obey house rules, such as doing assigned chores.

Amid a heroin crisis, York’s recovery home community has grown to the point that it attracts many clients from outside the county and state, and York has become known in addiction-service circles as a place to go for recovering addicts.

Homes are not required to have naloxone, the life-saving antidote for a heroin overdose. Even though most have the antidote, at least two of York city's 20 overdose deaths in 2015 occurred at recovery houses, according to data from the York County Coroner's office.

A state group that certifies homes says it holds the houses to high standards. That process is voluntary, and less than one-quarter of all homes can prove certification, according to the Pennsylvania Alliance of Recovery Residences.

Still, there is no official oversight of the houses and no clear way to tell how many people they help — or if people sent to one end up worse than when they went in.

A York state representative and a county judge think recovery houses should have some oversight, whether it's a set of statewide standards or more accountability. The director of a group that certifies the houses thinks the voluntary process is what is needed to legitimize the housing business.

No local, county or state official is coming in to check on what happens behind the doors of recovery houses, which can turn a profit. To open a recovery home, landlords are legally required to show no more than proof that properties are habitable like any other tenant-occupied rental unit. They do not have to offer licensed counseling or treatment.

Recovery houses aren't required to do drug tests, although companies running 54 of the homes in York will randomly test their residents.

The county's probation department funnels recovering addicts on parole into some of the houses. Probation officers lean on the homes as a viable option for people who would otherwise be homeless or in jail.

Recovery houses were never designed as treatment programs and should not be regulated as such, said Fred Way, executive director of the Pennsylvania Alliance of Recovery Residences, or PARR, which certifies homes.

Three businesses in York County — two of which provide housing in the city and another based in Stewartstown — are certified by PARR, Pennsylvania's branch of the National Alliance of Recovery Residences. Three more in York have applied to begin the certification process since February.

Houses are individually certified, said Adam Kiracofe, executive director at Safe Haven Transitional Living. Three of Safe Haven's houses are certified, he said, with two more pending approval.

Whereas a property owner doesn't need a zoning board's inspection of a property, PARR's process examines the home itself and its environment.

Way inspects a house's structural condition. He will check a house's smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and stove pilot lights. Is there adequate living and sleeping space? Is there hot and cold water? Any electrical hazards? Are the bathrooms clean? Do the doors and windows lock?

Being certified means the residence has a seal of approval that would direct people to houses that comply with an association and ensure their health and safety, Way said.

Attempts to regulate recovery homes can face hurdles. Businesses running the houses and recovery house advocacy groups will use federal law to show that local regulations discriminate against disabled people, or do not reasonably accommodate them, thus thwarting government attempts to regulate the homes, according to a paper published in The Public Law Journal.

Local governments are afraid of being sued, said state Rep. Tina Davis, D-Bucks County, who is working on legislation that would call for the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs to establish standards for recovery homes. The administration and enforcement of the act would be funded through certification fees and fines coming from violations, according to a memorandum for the bill that Rep. Kevin Schreiber, D-York, is co-sponsoring.

The state's drug and alcohol programs regulate treatment providers, and recovery houses do not fit that description, said Jason Snyder, spokesman for the department. While the department realizes there are issues with the homes, he said they hinge on housing more so than on drug and alcohol regulations.

Davis and Schreiber's proposal seeks to provide a framework in which the houses are properly operated through PARR's program and overseen by the state's drug and alcohol programs. The legislation does not aim to prohibit recovery houses.

The certification process, Way believes, will spur attrition of the bad houses as more become certified. As it stands now, though, more than three-quarters of the houses in York lack that distinction.

And houses can pop up in York almost overnight, Carey said.

As someone who works with transient people who are often coming from rehab or jail, Carey has fielded calls from people who want him to send guys to a recovery house they're opening. Or the caller will want to meet with people at the mission's homeless shelter for men about sober housing opportunities.

Carey declines. And he turns away suggestions to buy some city properties, get a few people to manage them and profit off his own recovery houses.

"What are we producing?" Carey asked. "Am I going to make a ton of money? Damn right I am. But how am I helping this town and these people? All I'm doing is churning them through a machine. Are they turning out any better of a person?"

Recovery houses are intended to help stabilize their residents. They are typically owned and run by people who have walked the path of recovery themselves. Structure is important to an addict trying to put his life back together, owners said.

If you're neglecting your chores or missing your support meetings, you can be fined, said Victoria Weldon, 21, who lived in a Pennsylvania Avenue recovery house owned by Choices Recovery House before transitioning into a sober house, a living arrangement that gives recovering addicts more independence. And if you're caught relapsing, you'll be removed from the house, said Kathy Sorandes, owner of Choices. Sorandes, however, said she won't put someone on the street immediately, often arranging someone to pick someone up or transporting that person herself.

The houses are a vital component of the recovery process, York County Chief Deputy Prosecutor David Sunday said, but are they good or bad? There's a lot he admits he doesn't know.

He does know that a lot of recovery houses are in high-drug areas.

"You're basically taking someone out of an inpatient treatment center and you're plopping them down literally in the midst of heroin dealers," Sunday said. "We who care about this have to be careful because a well-run recovery house is a vital part of treatment, but a recovery house which is poorly run can have the opposite effect."

The court won't recommend anyone to go to a recovery house unless it believes the home is legitimate, said York County Common Pleas Judge John Kennedy.

However, without independent oversight the industry is tasked with policing itself. And without regulations, what is legit?

A house needs rules, structure and drug testing, Kennedy said. In an ideal world, recovery houses would be licensed by the state's drug and alcohol department, which also licenses treatment facilities, he said.

Sometimes a judge will order a defendant to live in a recovery house. Other times, it is offered as an alternative to imprisonment, said Kennedy.

If not for the homes, more people would sit in York County Prison until they could find housing, he said. For regular probation cases, someone won't be paroled until they have a plan in effect that includes appropriate housing.

There are 18 houses in Lancaster city, according to an unofficial list provided by the county's drug and alcohol commission. There are 25 houses in Dauphin County, according to a list on the Capital Area Behavioral Health Collaborative's website. That site lists only houses approved by the collaborative, which manages drug and alcohol services under Medicaid in Cumberland, Dauphin, Perry, Lancaster and Lebanon counties, said Scott Suhring, executive director of the collaborative.

The collaborative's website has 14 recovery houses in York County and 17 in Lancaster County.

There are more than 90 houses in Bristol Township, Bucks County, according to a February story published by LevittownNow.com. That township is 17 square miles and has a population about 10,000 more than York, a 5.2 square-mile city.

There are more Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in a given week around Lancaster County than in York County. Berks County hosts about as many Narcotics Anonymous meetings as York, and Lancaster has more.

There are 19 drug and alcohol treatment providers in York County — the same amount as in Dauphin County, according to the state's drug and alcohol department. Lancaster and Berks counties, which have larger cities than York, each have 25.

Rob Biles, a 33-year-old resident at a Surrender Housing residence on Hamilton Avenue, said he lived at a recovery home in York in 2002. He was there for about six months before he left, deciding it wasn't for him. A warrant for a 2007 probation violation in York County brought Biles, a western Pennsylvania native, back to the city he had told himself he would never return to.

Like Biles, the majority of people in recovery homes who were interviewed for this story are not York County natives. They hail from places such as Maryland, New Jersey, Florida and Pittsburgh.

Some addicts will talk about needing a geographical change to help them stay sober. Regardless of where you are, though, your mind is the problem, Weldon said. "You're still you," she said. "No matter where you go, you're the problem."

Recovery house owners and their residents have called York a hotbed for recovery, although it is difficult to define why.

It's not clear how many recovery houses there are in Lancaster, Harrisburg and Reading. There are 61 certified housing outfits in Pennsylvania, Way said. While he couldn't ballpark a figure, the businesses operate dozens of houses.

There are another 20 or so businesses pending approval in Pennsylvania. Most of the certified homes are in Philadelphia and Bucks County, according to PARR's residence directory.

Even though he's worked portions of his 20 years of recovery in Philadelphia and Lancaster, John Houton believes York is as good a recovery place as there is in the country. Houton is the clinical director at Safe Haven's treatment facility on West Market Street. He came from Philadelphia, and when he worked in inpatient treatment in Lancaster, he preferred to send his patients 25 miles to the west for other services.

Recovery groups all over the country, including anonymous meetings, read from a creed, but they live it in York, Houton said. When a new guy to York's recovery scene was struggling on the Friday night of a heavy January snowstorm, Houton said he and another guy took him for coffee at Round the Clock Diner.

York's recovery community is welcoming, supportive and encouraging, Houton said. People new to recovery need that, and people with long-term sobriety pull newbies into their community.

Those running the homes and claiming to be "doing it right" will scoff at others who, they say, are trying to make a quick buck by accepting no less than $100 per week in a six-bedroom home. Owners of several homes declined to comment on their houses or the way they operate.

Some people buy a house, throw people in there and show up Friday for rent checks, Sorandes said. At Choices, she said, the approach is more motherly. She offers her cellphone number to all her residents.

The first time she got to a Choices house, Allison Foust stayed for about two hours before jumping off the back porch, she remembered. Foust was 24 then and had finally gotten clean for the first time since she was a teenager.

"My mind wasn't right," she said. "All I knew was to get high. I had to go."

Sitting at the dining room table of her Pennsylvania Avenue recovery house in February, Foust, 35, recounted the times she's been in rehab and jail.

"I'm not that 24-year-old kid who jumped off the porch," she said. "My disease has kicked my ass. It's not a joke to me. People are dying. I'm not saying jail is the answer, but I needed that."

Given another chance at Choices that began in January, Foust said she needs to be surrounded by people in recovery. "I can't do this alone," she said. "I'm 35 and I have no idea how to live, but it's safe here."

While the day-to-day operations vary among homes, they typically require their residents to find and keep jobs, attend regular support meetings, do chores and pay rent — approximately $125 each week, according to people who run houses. Intake costs, including a security deposit, administrative fee and a week or two of rent typically exceed $300 per person.

If you want to do it right, you have to fully invest in your residents, said Mary Danette Kushla, best known as Dani.

Kushla profits from her 11 homes in York under the company name Madison House West. She insisted she is fully invested in her 80 residents.

During a February interview in her West Market Street office, Kushla called one of her house managers and in a matter of seconds, she knew where a client was, where he works and what shift.

"Accountability is important," Kushla says. "If you don't take these people's lives serious, you don't belong in this business."

The success rate of any house or group of houses is practically impossible to determine. Because there are no regulations, the state, county and city have no data on retention or recidivism rates of addicts living in recovery homes, and several of the homes say they don't track such specific data.

Most of the recovery houses in York are not perfect, but April Billet-Barclay, director of York County Adult Probation, said some do an excellent job of helping people who are struggling with addiction. They provide support, structure and accountability, she said.

The probation department has had concerns about house owners using drugs.

"There's only so many times you can hear rumors before you start to question," Billet-Barclay said.

The probation department, according to a list provided by former deputy director Michael Stough, works with about 40 recovery houses across York. Not all of them are certified by PARR.

Stough, who left the department in February for another job, said a recovery house is useful if that's the only place someone can go.

Some places the probation department has used have had people doing drugs in the homes, Stough said. In one case, he said, a person in charge of a house had only a few weeks of sobriety.

"We don't look at it as any type of therapeutic," Stough said. "We would never send someone there in place of treatment."

Carey estimated that 80 percent of people who leave the York Rescue Mission for a recovery home end up returning to the men's homeless shelter. About half of others who leave tend to come back, he said. Those who return are not totally equipped with all the necessary life skills needed for the transition.

While most are employable, they lack the knowledge of how to budget money, prepare meals or continue living in a disciplined manner, Carey said. Some go to prison, others move to new locations and others call Carey or show up back at the mission, saying they need help in more ways than food and shelter, he said.

Sorandes said Choices loses about 10 percent of its residents every year between Thanksgiving and New Year's. The holidays are tough on recovering addicts, she said.

Succeeding in a recovery house requires an addict's willingness, said Joe Grdich, 46, who is a house manager for Safe Haven. A Pittsburgh native, Grdich was in an Altoona rehab facility before he landed in York about six years ago.

The success rate of recovery homes is 100 percent for people who are completely open-minded and willing to do what's suggested, Grdich said. Otherwise, he pegs it around 40 to 50 percent.

Missy Bretz, 47, who operates Surrender Housing with her husband, Bob, sees it differently. She figures 99 percent of people in the homes don't make it. A lot of people don't want to be told what to do, Bretz said. Some are just looking for somewhere to live.

Bob Allen, who owns Life's Beacon on North George Street, said the success rate of recovery homes isn't going to be that good.

"It's impossible to have 30 addicts somewhere and have one that isn't relapsing or will," he said.

There is a task force in Pennsylvania to review recovery houses. Pennsylvania's Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs joined addiction advocacy groups and recovery house owners to develop recommendations for the houses. That committee had met three times over a year and has submitted preliminary recommendations to the state's drug and alcohol programs. A full report is expected this summer.

Bedroom square footage, the number of residents, safety standards, business licensing, adherence to occupancy requirements and admission criteria are on the table for the committee's consideration. The possibility of state funding could encourage recovery houses to seek certification if the state's drug and alcohol department would adopt the recommendations.

It would be a step toward voluntary regulation. For now, houses can operate as they please.

"The houses can do what they want as long as they don't burn the place down or do anything illegal," said Sunday, York County's chief deputy prosecutor, said.

Running a recovery home is a tough business, Sunday said. Mistakes happen, and he gets that. If there are houses out there that couldn't care less and just want to make a few dollars, Sunday wants to look into them.

"I want to say, 'Are you harming our community?' And if you are, I want to look into that and see what we can do."

READ MORE: In recovery homes, chasing sobriety, responsibility

EDITORIAL: Recovery homes should be regulated

Contact Mark Walters at 717-771-2032 or follow him on Twitter at @walt_walters.

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