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Healing Place seeks two sites
| Healing Place map |
HUNTINGTON — A group attempting to establish a substance abuse recovery center to battle a drug problem entrenched in the Huntington area is now eyeing two pieces of property.
One of those properties — the old U.S. Naval Reserve training center facility between West 8th and 9th streets on Jackson Avenue — was identified as The Healing Place’s top choice during Monday night’s Huntington City Council meeting.
The other piece of property, which The Healing Place would acquire in addition to the Naval Reserve facility, is the former Lincoln Elementary School on the corner of 9th Avenue and 25th Street. The building now is owned by Tri-City Floors & Ceiling.
“We’re going for both pieces of property,” said Kim Miller, manager of women’s addiction services at Prestera Center and a planner for The Healing Place. “We could put up to 100 men at the Naval Reserve facility and 50 female residents at the Tri-City building.”
Those working to establish The Healing Place in Huntington include addiction treatment specialists, state legislators, faith-based leaders and local residents. They say their efforts are a key part of combating the region’s drug problem. While thousands may seek help, only about 275 beds are available in the state for long-term substance abuse treatment.
The Healing Place is being modeled after a substance abuse recovery program by the same name in Louisville, Ky. It is a medication-free program that uses the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous as the core of its curriculum.
The program costs $25 a day per person to operate, but many clients don’t pay. Instead, they earn their keep by preparing meals, doing laundry and other chores at the center.
The Healing Place has a success rate of 65 percent, or about five times greater than traditional recovery centers. It has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a “model that works.”
The program also is being replicated at 12 additional sites in Kentucky and has been used as a model for centers in Richmond, Va., and Raleigh, N.C.
Huntington supporters are in negotiations with Tri-City Floors & Ceiling for the 9th Avenue property and have submitted to the federal government a proposal to acquire the Naval Reserve facility, Miller said. Mayor David Felinton wrote a letter to the Naval Reserve’s real estate officer on The Healing Place’s behalf last month requesting that the federal government donate the property to the group.
The Healing Place’s only funding source thus far is the West Virginia Legislature, which has given $200,000 to the group for planning purposes. It has applied for a $470,000 grant with the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment that it would use for staffing and operations.
It also has asked for $1 million from the $44.1 million settlement that West Virginia is getting from Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin. That money would be used for property acquisition and renovations, Miller said.
The Naval Reserve facility, which has been vacant for about two years, is the most attractive among nearly a dozen properties that Healing Place supporters have toured, Miller said.
“Of all the places we’ve looked at, it’s basically ready to go,” she said. “It has classrooms, dormitories and a loading dock. It doesn’t have a kitchen, but there’s space where we could build a kitchen.”
The one concern about the property is that it contains underground fuel storage tanks, she said.
Miller’s optimistic about The Healing Place’s chances at acquiring the property. The only other proposal has come from the state Department of Transportation, which would demolish the building and build a parking lot for its district office, Miller said.
Though the acquisition process could take up to a year, the General Services Administration prefers to convey vacant federal property to private, nonprofit groups that address homelessness or public health or provide self-help housing, she said.
“Based on what I’ve read, the federal government will not convey a building to someone for commercial or for-profit use,” she said.
That would nix a recommendation from City Councilman P.D. Adkins that the city acquire the property and use it to lure a business to Huntington. The property is ideal for a business because it’s located in an industrial area, Adkins said Monday.
Other council members suggested that the property be used for a community center. They ended up adopting a resolution asking Felinton to research the potential uses for the Naval Reserve training center.
But Felinton said Wednesday he supports The Healing Place’s efforts to acquire the property. The city will not interfere with The Healing Place by trying to acquire the building for a different use, he said.
“To me, it seems like the right fit for The Healing Place and consistent with what the federal government would want the property to be used for,” Felinton said.
Meeting scheduled tonight
A meeting to discuss plans for establishing a long-term addiction recovery center in Huntington is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 14, at Prestera Center on U.S. 60 East, just past Wal-Mart.
Meetings about The Healing Place, which is being modeled after a peer- and abstinence-based center by the same name in Louisville, Ky., are usually held on the second Thursday of each month at Christ Temple Church. However, this month’s meeting was moved to Prestera because of a scheduling conflict at the church.
The meeting is open to the public. For more information, call Kim Miller at 304-525-7851, ext. 4506.
