House for recovering addicts opens with two female residents
Sarah, celebrating her one-month sobriety, occupies a double room at the Bird Sisters Oxford House on Richhill Street, Waynesburg. (Photo by Jon Stevens)
This house at 109 Richhill Street in Waynesburg opened last month.
Adrienne, a one-time homeless mother of three who admitted being addicted to Suboxone, can relax and recover at the Bird Sisters Oxford House in Waynesburg. (Photo by Jon Stevens)
Relaxing on a sofa in the living room at the Bird Sisters Oxford House in Waynesburg are, from left, Bonnie Fisher, a “Founding Mother” and site manager; residents Sarah and Adrienne; and Lynn Bird, also a “Founding Mother.” (Photo by Jon Stevens)
Lynn Bird sat at the dining room table next to Sarah and across from Adrienne, listening to them tell their stories of their addiction and how they came to be the first two residents of Greene County’s second Oxford House.
How difficult it must have been for Bird to look at their faces and hear them speak of their chances for sobriety in a safe and hopeful environment that was tragically unavailable to two of Bird’s daughters.
Jennifer L. Bird Porter was 32 years old when she died May 18, 2014, as a result of drug use. Four months later, on Sept. 18, Megan D. Bird, 30, died in her Sycamore home from a drug overdose.
Bob Terry, president of Steps Inside, a nonprofit drug and alcohol drop-in center in Waynesburg, and project manager for the Oxford Houses in the county, once said when speaking of the unimaginable tragedy experienced by Lynn Bird and her husband, Donald, “After their first daughter died, their mother pleaded for a house for her second daughter. Unfortunately, when those doors didn’t open her second daughter died due to an overdose. We cannot wait for other daughters to overdose.”
Those doors did open this past Jan. 1 in a three-story house at 109 Richhill Street in Waynesburg. It became, most fittingly, “The Bird Sisters Oxford House, and Adrienne, 28, immediately became its first resident. Soon, Sarah, 24, joined her at the house and the two young women, along with the “Founding Mothers” that include Bird and Bonnie Fisher, site manager for the Oxford Houses, anticipate other women, up to eight, will soon find their way to the large yellow house across from the First Methodist Church.
But Fisher made it clear: women receive no special treatment. They must follow the same rules as the men in the Oxford House on Cumberland Street.
Each resident must pay up to $400 a month for rent, utilities, paper products, food, etc. If a resident is working, she is required to attend three 12-step meetings a week, and if unemployed, five 12-step meetings a week, and these meetings can be at Steps Inside, Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous, whichever the resident chooses.
Those who come to live at an Oxford House still may be receiving rehabilitation and detoxification treatments. They do not have to be entirely drug-free.
However, there is to be no use of drugs or alcohol and no disruption while living there. The house must be run democratically, with each resident paying equal expense of operating the house.
There is a screening process and if the applicant passes the application and interview process established under Oxford House guidelines, they are accepted.
In the case of the Bird Sisters house, Sarah, Adrienne and six Founding Mothers conduct the interview. If a third resident is accepted, one of the mothers steps aside and this process continues until the maximum of eight is reached.
There is no restriction on length of stay as long as the rules are followed. But if one resident breaks the rules, the others can vote to have her removed from the house.
Fisher said Oxford House receives referrals from several sources, including the CARE Center, Greenbrier Treatment Center in Washington, other rehabilitation facilities such as Steps Inside and even from the Greene County Jail.
“We just want to get the word out that we are open,” Fischer said. “Brochures are available explaining the program and word-of-mouth also is a big help,” she said.
Although the house has been open for nearly a month and has just two residents, Bird said, “I think we are fine.”
Adrienne is a mother of three children, ages 10, 4 and 5 months. She doesn’t have custody of them but she sees them every week now.
“I have been homeless and at one point I was staying with friends wherever I could find them,” she said.
Adrienne, who is originally from Fayette County but went to West Greene High School, admitted she has used heroin but her present addiction is Suboxone, which is used to treat narcotic (opiate) addiction.
She said she learned about the Oxford House online, discovering she was friends with one of the Founding Mothers.
“I really like it here but I also need to find a job,” she said.
Sarah also is addicted to Soboxone, but has abused alcohol as well.
“I was living with my parents (in Waynesburg) but we would always seem to have conflicts,” she said. “I dealt with those conflicts by using drugs and alcohol.”
“I have been sober for about a month. I have no desire to use (drugs) or drink,” she added. “This is a safe environment and I am beginning to feel at peace.”
She said she ended up in jail last year on non-drug or alcohol-related related charges but after she was released she went to rehab at Greenbrier and then began attending sessions at Steps Inside.
“I filled out an application, and here I am,” she said.
Sarah also sadly admitted she has had to cut herself off from all her friends because they are all using.
“It’s so easy to get drugs in Greene County,” she said.