Jul 18, 2025 By Mike Jones 4 min read

The Washington County commissioners disbursed the third round of opioid settlement funds, including a large sum to a family that wants to open a recovery house in Washington in memory of their son who died from addiction nearly five years ago.

The family and friends of Shawn Patrick Nairn attended Thursday morning’s county meeting as the commissioners unanimously approved $842,617 in grants to five organizations that are helping to fight the opioid epidemic.

The largest allotment of $350,000 will go to help launch the Shawn Patrick Recovery House, along with $348,000 to County Community Living; $67,617 to Domestic Violence Services of SWPA; $62,000 to the Washington County Department of Human Services for a certified recovery specialist; and $15,000 to the Mel Blount Youth Home.

Nairn’s parents, Shawn and Melissa Nairn, and his brother, Regis, alongside his best friend Devin Reed, sat in attendance as commission Chairman Nick Sherman lauded their work in helping with drug addiction recovery and lending their son’s name to the cause.

“They’ve taken a great deal of their time and money and put this toward a recovery house that will be second to none,” Sherman said. “I’ve talked to them ad nauseum about this, the job they want to do and their goal is to make sure that no one has to bear the absolutely incomparable, unimaginable loss of losing a child.”

Sherman became emotional as he thanked them for “putting your commitment to this and putting your son’s name on this house” that will help others in recovery.

“I thank you for taking your money and taking your time and taking your commitment to help in this tragedy we have with this poison on the streets,” Sherman said. “This opioid settlement money is going to go to great things.”

Shawn Patrick Nairn died of an overdose on Sept. 16, 2020, at age 28. He was living in a recovery house in the area at the time while working to battle drug addiction, so his parents, brother and best friend have put a plan in place to operate a residence that offers accountability and steps to succeed.

“We lost our son, a brother, a best friend,” Shawn Nairn said during an interview after the meeting. “One thing with recovery … there are a lot of flaws in the process (to treat) addicts.”

He said there need to be better options for people leaving rehabilitation to assimilate back into the community.

“We want it to be a higher level of recovery,” Nairn said. “And that’s not an easy task.”

Reed was best friends with Shawn Patrick Nairn, and said he had helped him with his own recovery from drug addiction. He said the facility they plan to operate will be at an existing recovery house in Washington that they plan to upgrade and improve, although they declined to release details about its location or capacity until agreements are finalized. But Reed said operating their recovery house in the city is important so people “work and live in their community,” giving them a better chance for success.

“We want to be that next step,” Reed said. “People (living) there have to work to live in that house.”

While he lost his battle with addiction, the family agrees that Shawn Patrick was someone who still inspired and helped others, and they hope the recovery house will continue his legacy. Melissa Nairn said she thinks the house “will give people hope and recovery” while Shawn Patrick’s brother, Regis, said it will offer others a chance to succeed in overcoming drug addiction.

“There are hundreds of guys who got clean because of Shawn Patrick,” he said. “You have plenty of guys who looked up to him.”

This is the third allocation of Washington County’s opioid settlement money, which has given out more than $4.42 million since September. The county will be disbursing around $800,000 annually from its portion of the Pennsylvania Opioid Misuse and Addiction Abatement Trust for the next 16 years.