April 18th, 2007 by The Bosphorus
KnoxNews reports:
OAK RIDGE - A controversial halfway house for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics lost its bid to stay in business following an emotional hearing Tuesday.
So I didn’t realize that Oak Ridge has these sorts of half-way houses. Well, not anymore.
The Dismas house in Knoxville was the first sort of half-way house I’d heard of. It seemed like a great thing and was run by a nun. It had to close down due to finances.
Back to Oak Ridge, KnoxNews goes on to say:
Beams scoffed at Sisson’s assertion that Freedom House residents had helped improve the neighborhood by cleaning up streets and chasing off drug dealers.
“I’m not sure I understand how bringing a house full of drug addicts into a neighborhood makes it any better,” Beams said.
“Are we in the business to import criminals to our community?” asked resident Sid Booth.
“I want them all gone,” he said of the neighborhood’s halfway houses.
I can sympathize with neighborhood residents concerned about having recovering addicts next door, but where should they go? The “not in my back yard” mentality doesn’t really help the problem, does it?
April 18th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
My guess is that some are managed better than others, and that a halfway house run by a nun might be a little stricter than most. I think the neighbors might be more than a little upset with having several halfway houses in a relatively small geographic area.
April 18th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Yeah, theres a few others around here. I know where one in Clinton was, but not Oak Ridge.
April 18th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Sorry Bos, I have to disagree with you one this one. The investment that I have in my home and the safety of my family can be directly affected by a half-way house.
If a half-way house for drug abusers were to move into my neighborhood, you can bet I would be against it.
Sorry, but it’s a cold cruel world we live in. No one knows that better than a drug addict.
April 18th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
I don’t know where they should go. I’m sure there is a place that would be better suited than a residential neighborhood with kids. (I’m not sure if this particular house was in a neighborhood like that.)
The fact is that sometimes those people don’t make it. Sometimes they are out on the street just hanging around. It scares me to have my children exposed to that.
Can you tell that I had to drive past one to drop my kid off at school for a few years and it made me nervous?
April 18th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
I know two people who came out of a halfway house in Oak Ridge and both of them are doing very well. We had quite a few recovering addicts come through Ruby’s when I worked there and none of them were threats to anyone. It seems to me that Oak Ridge needs to build more halfway houses not bring them down. Has no one noticed the huge crack/meth/pill problem there? Of course there is the old, ignore it and it will go away. That always works.
April 18th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Tell you what Denette, encourage folks to build half-way houses and you invest $100k+ in a house next door to each of them. Oh yeah, birth a bunch of kids and let them live next to a half-way house.
Let me know how that works out for ya.
April 18th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Down Daco, Down! It’s all good. Just think what the people in my neighborhood thought when we moved in. Half-way house might have been an improvement!
April 18th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Daco, if you think in every 100K neighborhood in Oak Ridge there isn’t a drug dealer or user your sadly mistaken.
April 18th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Very good response Denette! I would rather have recovering addicts as neighbors than addicts.
Halfway house residents are constantly (usually twice daily) screened for use and are NEVER allowed to fall off the wagon and stay. A halfway house is full of “clean” people. Whatever your home cost, can you honestly know that about all of your neighbors?
The residents of half-way houses lead extremely structured lives, going to AA/NA meetings, holding jobs, life skill training classes, etc. “Hanging around” is highly discouraged and they rarely have the opportunity to do so. Remember, these are the people who DO NOT want to be addicts anymore.
I suggest that before passing judgment, the NIMBY’s take a tour of one to see for themselves what/how they are run. Any community is a better place when its addicted population is decreased.
April 18th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
There is a huge drug problem in this area. Oak Ridge is a hub for that activity supplying the outer regions from Knoxville West.
Drug addicts cannot be “cured” w/o wanting to be “cured”. They also need some one to facilitate that desire into a productive purpose to reach their goal. They also need peer support, yes other addicts wishing to be drug free. Halfway houses provide this support group if run properly.
The problem with NMBY’s like daco on this issue is the things are going to exist somewhere, they are not for profit but still a business. Businesses seek locations where they can provide their services. In O.R. they exist in areas where the houses are $100K in value but that is not in the WOD area or Rarity areas. These houses exist in old neighborhoods and old houses. One particular house is much more successful and has operated quietly in OR for over 20 years.
The problem with this particular “hwh” was it came in w/o Zoning and the proper permits/licenses, according to news reports. Further, it appears there was interal control problems with one resident leaving and allegedly killing his girlfriend about three weeks ago, according to news reports.
Funny, one can exist for over 20 years with hardly a whimper but get two or three and suddenly there is a problem. The real problem is there is a need for proper treatment facilities if this problem (drugs) is ever gonna have a chance to be cleared up.
VA bell is correct. Residents using are not allowed to stay, even if they want to stay. When the leave they usually go back to their old haunts or jail.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
I have actually volunteered at the Dismas house for men here in Nashville, and most of them are honestly trying to make a positive change in their lives. I hope whoever wrote the article doesn’t ever need a second chance or a helping hand, Lord forbid. I’m all for helping the community and it erks me when comments like this are made. Anyway, if you displace them then thats when all their options of starting over is taken from them and they have a higher rate of going back to whatever it was that got them there in the first place.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Hey AT, NICE GRASS! :-)Or Bos, whoever would like to take credit.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
I’m a big boy girls and I wasn’t born yesterday. Of course I understand that there are drug users and drug dealers all over the place. The point is that I don’t invite them into my neighborhood and if I find out that they are there, I do have a history of asking them to leave. (Right Jacket?)
I do have compassion for those recovering from any addiction, but my compassion shouldn’t be confused with any intent to invest my treasure or my family’s security in their recovery process.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
There is a difference that you are missing here daco. These are recovering addicts that are moved out if they relapse which equals them not being in the house. The majority are “clean” and working a job, (they have to pay rent) and all are regularly drug screened to insure no drug use. You didn’t invite them into your neighborhood. Finally, they are not “dealing” like your old neighbor was, or like you suspected he was, doing. If they are the problem is turned over to the proper authority and they are also asked to leave, just like you would if a dealer was in “your neighborhood (my bet there is one near where you live now, and maybe a sex offender or two also). HWH operators do not allow drugs on premises.
April 18th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
“(my bet there is one near where you live now, and maybe a sex offender or two also)”
Do you know something that I don’t. (and that wasn’t a set up for a cheap shot, pal o mine)
April 18th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
I think Jacket’s just saying that appearances aren’t everything. You may be surprised by who your neighbors are, or even of what goes on within their walls.
At least with a half-way house, you know that there are only people who want to change their lives for the better. Sometimes, it’s the cleanest house around.
Check out the TN state sex offender registry, it’s public information, available online. When I checked my local registry, I learned that there are about 5 within a block radius.
These are the people I’m afraid of, not the ex-alcohol/drug addicts that are trying to help themselves.
April 19th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Nope, but better to be aware of the known, as opposed to the unknown as stated above. Point is both are regulated to the best that can be done.
April 24th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
I have a much better understanding of these so called halfway houses that we are talking about. There are 3 in this small area-all within 2 to 3 blocks of one another. I know through my place of business some of the workers and some of the recovering. I have had at least 30 clients from these “half way” houses. Based on what I have seen with my own eyes and conversations I have had I am shocked that 2 of them are even called half way houses. I would only call one of them a decent place to recover and as for the one that was “shut down” I would consider it more of a “safe house” for those who have learned not to get caught. There is no way they are drug screened. One resident I recently had a conversation with was anything but, sober. Three others are regular customers of mine; two of which can not seem to keep their eyes from rolling back in their heads long enough to conduct a thirty second transaction. Not to mention when I am doing business with these particular clients I can’t grasp half of the conversation because of the slurred speech!! I have witnessed the “deals” myself. I strongly believe some do change; I have seen a few change myself over the years but, come on. Statistics and reality…
And I completely AGREE with my dad. We do not live some where over the rainbow. I for one do not want my children living near them. Do you want your children riding their bikes on the same sidewalk where drug deals are taking place?