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Halfway House Celebrates Success
by Thom Randall
GLENS FALLS - As state officials chatted with managers of two halfway houses for recovering alcoholics at an open house event, two former clients raised cans of Pepsi for a toast.
"For years, all I knew was drinking, drugs, and fighting - I didn't care if I lived or died," said Robert Eastman, a 26 year old man who was in the halfway house's recovery program from April 2003 until a few months ago. "This place put structure in my life and taught me a whole new way to live."
Benjamin Brooke, 22, listened to Eastman and pulled on the brim of his baseball cap. "I know what you mean - I had no regard for my life or anyone else's," he said.
Brooke has been assaulted and robbed at gunpoint for illicit drugs and was arrested last summer for heroin possession. "But this is a new beginning, man - a new way of life," he said.
Both Brooke and Eastman spent time in the halfway house at 13 Crandall Street rather than jail. Formerly called St Vincent DePaul House, it's now known as "820 River Street" after a similar halfway house in Troy, and it houses 17 men. A similar home in Granville which opened about two months ago accommodates nine women.
The Glens Falls house has operated as a private facility for about 12 years, but last year was officially sanctioned by the state.
The clients, primarily referred by judges, live at the home under strict rules that include a 10 pm curfew, no substance abuse, room inspections, and mandatory participation in group meetings and activities.
Most of the clients are referred to the halfway house by Warren and Washington county drug courts. Participants are assigned tasks and responsibilities and support each other, leading to a productive life, according to the Rev Peter Young [volunteer CEO], who has launched 86 similar homes treating more than 3,000 clients over the state.
"Our mission is to restore lives and people's dignity, so they can earn paychecks and become taxpayers," he said at the open house, where he greeted officials from state substance abuse and criminal justice agencies. "It's a matter of providing recovery services, opportunity, training, education, and work."
Eastman described in his own words how the halfway house's program helped him recover from alcohol addiction. "I came to this house broken and torn apart," he said, adding that he had been estranged from his family and relatives. "Now I'm working at a good job, my bills are paid, and I'm in good health and people are behind me 100 percent - my life is really good right now."