Bel Alton, MD – Is it something that can help in a situation where help is desperately needed, or just another case of “not in my back yard?”
That’s the unfolding situation in Bel Alton.
Throughout Southern Maryland, heroin abuse is on the rise. There are those filtering through Charles County Circuit Court who either fall back into use, usually violating their probation resulting in jail time, or enter treatment.
Either way, it’s a hard road.
The Jude House in Bel Alton has a recovery program with a 98 percent success rate, which prompted Maryland Governor Larry Hogan [R] to name them as one of the state’s top 10 recovery programs.
“He asked specifically for the Jude House to be on his task force,” Debbie Prohaska, president of the Jude House Board of Directors said.
Its triumphs, however, have caused this highly successful program to outgrow itself.
Beds in the facility are at a premium.
“We currently have 40 men and 10 women under one roof,” Prohaska said. “That is not a good scenario.
“We’ve got a large problem,” she stressed. “We don’t have proper housing.”
Since last April, the board set out to acquire and restore a house on 8806 Dove Drive in Bel Alton. Its intent: to rent a newly renovated residential home to The Jude House providing housing for five or less women as part of their long term treatment and recovery program.
Some in the community are not happy with the proposal.
Matt Scherhaufer, for instance, said he finds it “a little unethical” that the person filing for the permit for the residential home is the husband of the president of the Board of Directors for the Jude House.
“I just don’t understand how that is right,” Scherhaufer said.
“I am a believer in rehabilitation for drug addiction like many of the neighbors, but I truly feel that a residential neighborhood should not be a place for it,” he added. “The projected halfway house is located approximately six houses down the street from mine, so I have constantly noticed county and contractor vehicles going up and down the road. I purchased my home a few years ago and can honestly say I would not have bought the house knowing that a halfway house was going to be a few houses down the street.
“I have come across a few other things that I find disturbing about this issue,” Scherhaufer stated. “People have left the Jude House during treatment before their treatment was complete. Now knowing that all treatments are not voluntary and some are court ordered, that could put a random drug addict in my neighborhood at anytime.”
“Our community is not the appropriate place for this type of facility,” Sandra Merchant, who lives next door to the proposed home, said. “A facility of this sort should be in an environment that has direct access to public transportation, places where the individuals can assimilate back into the community and not sit in a remote area with nothing to do. That is a recipe for recidivism and relapse.”
She is not happy the facility is being proposed, literally, in her own back yard.
“It changes the entire dynamic of our neighborhood,” she said.
“Jude House has followed every guideline as set by the county,” Prohaska stated. “We applied for special permits, zoning, went through the health department, and we met with the neighborhood, Nov. 9. For them to say they didn’t know is not true. We have done everything the county has asked.”
The Board of Appeals for Charles County is holding a public hearing on the issue Tuesday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. in the Charles County Commissioners Meeting Room.
Prohaska said the women who are part of the residential setting will be in programs and classrooms from 8 a.m. until 7:30 p.m.
“The house will only have five women in leadership roles within the women’s group from 8 p.m. at night until they leave for therapy the following morning,” she explained.
Prohaska said that ZONTA, a professional women’s group in Charles County, adopted the women at the shelter for a year and have been “strongly involved” with their recovery. Many have stayed on as volunteers after the group fulfilled its one-year commitment, she noted.
She added, the fears of the community that their property values will diminish because of the halfway house in the neighborhood are unfounded.
“If anything, their property values should increase,” she said. “The house had not been occupied for two years, now it has been totally renovated, state of the art. And it’s desperately needed.”
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com