Photo by David Manning
by Jennifer L. Johnson
The letter on Casey Minish's desk came from an incarcerated man in Hall County who needs drug and alcohol treatment.
The fact that the inmate doesn't have the money to pay wouldn't normally bother Minish.
But now, the thing standing between the man and addiction treatment is cash, and that fact does bother Minish.
"If we have the money and the bed available, we do not turn anyone away because they don't have the money," said Minish, executive director of The Healing Place. "The problem is that I do not have the funds to take him in."
The Healing Place is a multipurpose facility in Athens that serves men not only with substance abuse problems, but also men who need emergency overnight shelter and, usually later, transitional housing.
Shelter Manager Evan Conner turns away four or five men a night because the 12 available beds fill up quickly.
The faith-based drug and alcohol recovery program includes the 90-day residential program, help finding a job and housing, and ongoing support after the person returns to the community to live a life of sobriety.
Some, like 28-year-old Conner, complete the program and are allowed to stay and work with the men who arrive later.
"I've been through four other treatment programs before this," Conner said. "I learned more in two weeks at this place then in five years at those others."
The program costs $1,050, but as many as 85 percent of the clients don't have the money to pay, according to Minish. Most go through the program at little or no charge, even though it costs the nonprofit about $4,000 per client.
That might no longer be possible, according to organizers. The Healing Place only has enough money to remain open for another month and a half.
This isn't the first time The Healing Place teetered on the brink of closing. The organization lost its home in February 2008, but donors and community helped the organization get back on its feet.
As with many nonprofits, charitable donations are down due to the economy, and that money pays 95 percent of the cost to operate The Healing Place, Minish said.
Even its thin slice of government funding is shrinking.
A state Department of Community Affairs grant usually supplies the group with $20,000 to $30,000 a year. This year, The Healing Place received $5,000.
"We need general operating expenses," Minish said. Rent and utilities for the organization's building on West Broad Street run about $4,000 a month and so far this year, the organization is $26,000 in the red.
Minish is the only paid employee at The Healing Place; programs, including the shelter and transitional housing, are staffed by former clients who have chosen to continue living and working at the shelter.
"If the doors of The Healing Place close, there are 25 men that are going to be back on the streets," said Minish.
One of those men is Dwayne Waldrop, who has been at The Healing Place for more than a year.
"This place is changing people's lives on a daily basis," said Waldrop, 28. His parents found the program after he was arrested on drug charges last year and given the choice of prison or rehab.
"If this place closed its doors, I'd be up under a bridge somewhere," he said.
More than a place to live, residents say The Healing Place is a positive environment for addicts to work on their sobriety.
"The program gave me more insight on my life," said Darren Williams, 40, who completed the treatment program on Friday. "Not just from my past addiction, but what I would need for my future to stay clean and have a successful life."
Fifty-two-year-old Mike Conner of Rutledge joined the treatment program in late August after going through several secular rehabilitation programs.
"I was hitting rock bottom, I was homeless, I had burned all the bridges," said Conner, whose son is the shelter manager. "I came here and they took me right in. They treated me with nothing but love and respect."
Eighty percent of homeless people in Athens are men, and more than half of homeless people admitted to having a substance abuse problem in a January survey, to Evan Mills, community development specialist at the Athens-Clarke Human and Economic Development Department.
"I don't know what will happen to Clarke County if we don't continue to operate," said Healing Place board President Jerry Kiser.
Right now, the board of directors is appealing to the organization's mailing list and speaking to UGA classes and local churches about what the nonprofit does.
"This place has the ability to help people," Evan Conner said. "It's helped me."
Contact the Healing Place at (706) 369-0603.
Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Sunday, September 27, 2009
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