CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — Harrison County’s largest city and county seat is engulfed over a debate about the placement of sober living homes for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics.
That’s not to say that members of the community don’t support the idea, but Clarksburg Mayor Cathy Goings said a number of city residents have expressed concern over the placement of sober living facilities by two different organizations.
“I would imagine that we will get the same response from members of the community in that neighborhood as we have gotten from members of the community where the [Clarksburg] Mission is proposing their sober living home,” Goings said.
More than 500 people signed a petition, published in the Clarksburg Exponent-Telegram on Sunday, opposing the location of two sober living facilities on East Pike Street.
The petitioners primary concern is the proximity of the property to Notre Dame High School.
The second organization, Oxford House, uses a different business model. Anywhere from six to eight people entering addiction recovery rent a home together–attempting to operate the home as both a family and a business would–while following three key rules.
“Some people get the knack of how to stay clean and sober just after 30 days or two or three months,” Oxford House CEO Paul Malloy said. “Other people may take three or four years. Some people may never be able to stay clean and sober unless they live in this environment with other people who are able to stay clean and sober.”
The rules are simple: the house must be Democratically self-governed, the unit must be financially self-sufficient, and the group must agree to expel any member who returns to illicit drugs or alcohol.
“They become part of the community, and the community becomes quite proud of the fact that we have people in recovery,” Malloy said.
Goings, who said she supports the concept of these facilities, said the city did have a number of concerns.
“They have not come before the officials of the city to determine that they can even put in a sober living home,” she said. “There are certain requirements code-wise.”
The Oxford House has more than 2,000 units spread across 42 states. There are already 17 in West Virginia, but none in the North Central West Virginia region. According to Malloy, their model offers a much better chance at successfully staying clean.
“Most people relapse,” he said. “If you look at the national statistics of people who are in treatment, first of all, only one in fifteen people will even get into treatment. Then, for those who get into treatment, fifteen percent of them have been through treatment five times before.”
Several studies have found higher than normal success rates at these homes. One such study, conducted in 1987 and following the first 13 years of Oxford House patients, was conducted by a retired former employee of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
“And he came to us six months later and said, ‘What I found was that 80 percent of the folks who moved into Oxford House stayed clean and sober,'” Malloy said. “And we said to him, ‘My God, what are we doing wrong? We’re losing 20 percent. And he said, ‘You don’t understand. Treatment for alcoholism and drug addiction, you are lucky if 20 percent stay clean and sober.'”
Of the 17 homes already in West Virginia, there is one each in Benwood, Charles Town, Dunbar, Keyser, Oak Hill, and Weirton. Two such homes exist in Wheeling. Three homes are in Charleston, Huntington, and Martinsburg. The first home in Clarksburg would open February 1 on S. 22nd Street. Outreach coordinators from Oxford House are already attempting to find suitable tenants.
Mayor Goings said the idea was promising. But between concerned residents and no one from the Oxford House reaching out to city officials, she seemed skeptical that Oxford House would hit their February 1 open date.
“I just, for the life of me, can’t understand how you can proceed forward without getting somebody involved to say, ‘Yes, this meets standards,'” Goings said.
“I guess our only recourse would be to sit down with the City Manager. We would have to put it before a vote amongst Council, but I don’t know that legally we could do that.”
On average, around 24,000 people live in Oxford Houses each year. Usually, that amounts to be about 10,000 people in the homes at any given time. In 2016, more than 35,000 people resided at Oxford Houses.
“One of the good things about alcoholism and drug addiction is that they are egalitarian diseases,” Paul Malloy said. “Rich people get it. Poor people get it. Black people get it. White people get it.”
There’s a paradox, though. Oxford House residents can stay as long as they want–as long as they can afford it. Additionally, their house mates are expected to hold them accountable for relapses.
Malloy said the homes are unique and reflect the difficulties he had during his own time battling alcoholism in the 1960’s and 1970’s. He was committed to an asylum in 1975, thrown out of the asylum, and entered a halfway house in Maryland. The key difference between an Oxford House and a government-run halfway house should be immediate, he said.
“Well, there was no time limit,” Malloy said. “When I was in the halfway house, there was a six month time limit because government was paying for us to live there. So, you had to leave at the end of six months.”
He said the ensuing results speak for themselves.
“The first three months I was in that halfway house, 11 guys had to leave because their six months were up,” Malloy said. “Ten of those 11 relapsed.”
When county government in Montgomery County, Maryland had to slash their budgets in 1975, Malloy and several others came up with the idea of taking over the home themselves.
“We took the house over, operated it,” Malloy said. “The 13 men did themselves by electing officers and paying our own way and paying our own expenses.”
That was another concept that Malloy took with him when these homes began cropping up by the hundreds across the United States. Residents follow a charter and elect a President, Secretary, Treasurer, Comptroller, and Chore Coordinator. All positions have term limits.
“That turned out to be a good thing too,” Malloy said. “Over a period of time, if you live in a house for a couple of years, you will probably serve in each of those offices.”
While Oxford House originally served more people recovering from alcoholism than drug addiction, Malloy estimates about 68 percent of today’s residents deal with some form of drug addiction.