There’s a new bill on the table for the 2024 session of the Virginia General Assembly that takes a small step toward oversight of recovery house operators.
State Sen. Barbara Favola – a Democrat representing parts of Arlington, Fairfax, and Loudoun counties – has prefiled Senate Bill 19, which would “require recovery residences, in the same manner required for licensed facilities and programs, to report to the Department (of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services) any death or serious injury that occurs in the recovery residence.”
What are your thoughts on this bill? What kind of legislation would you like to see addressing recovery housing in Virginia? I’d love to hear from you.
Here’s what one member of Richmond’s recovery community had to say shortly after I posted this update:
… I’m so pleased to see that legislators are taking the reports of unethical treatment in sober houses seriously. It’s madness that there hasn’t been infrastructure in place to report deaths and serious injuries. That said, I fear that this bill is entirely reliant on the idea that NARR and VARR are reputable groups, worthy of DBHDS’s trust. In my personal opinion, NARR’s standards and certification processes are complete mumbo jumbo, because they’re entirely unenforceable. The state is outsourcing and entrusting non-profits to set ethical standards, but NARR isn’t in the business of enforcing anything, and neither is the state of Virginia in this case. I’m afraid legislation of this type will breed even more of a hush-hush environment in sober houses. Our legislators don’t understand that the more we entrust groups like NARR and VARR to channel people into recovery houses, the more likely we are to put people like the Sangsters, who run the FROG houses in RVA, out of business, and have systemic corruption across the board that prevents any victims from coming forward. Moreover, victims will have no options other than VARR or Oxford housing. It’s not as lucrative for VARR members when there are private citizens out there keeping alcoholics safe. I get that there should be ethical standards across the board, but if DBHDS is entrusting a corrupt group or groups to implement those standards, what do we think will happen? I’ll go out on a limb and say they’ll use all their resources to funnel people directly from incarceration into recovery housing under the guise of giving them a fresh start, but prevent them from having a choice in what sober living situation they would like to have. They’ll try to run private entities like the Sangsters out of business, continue to abuse people in their homes, and continue to get away with it because there’s no enforcement. So, you know, this legislation is all good and well, except I think that we’ve gone drastically awry in entrusting non-profits in this way; I feel what is effectively happening is the legislators are saying “yeah, be sure to report those deaths, by the way. Wow, look at us, such bleeding hearts, helping these vulnerable citizens,” and in response, VARR members will say, “oh lol, yeah, we’ll be sure to do that, wink-wink,” and nothing is f*cking changing. …
In the next few weeks, I plan to publish an update on VARR’s financial activity. After that, I’ll return to reporting on recovery housing practices.
To share your experience with recovery housing, please reach out to me here.
Note: In the original post, I shared that I’d created a “PDF Copies” page with printable versions of each installment for readers who requested them. I’ve since discontinued that page to keep site maintenance manageable.
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Comments are open on the townhall regarding this bill!! Let’s help protect recovery house residents!
https://www.townhall.virginia.gov/L/Comments.cfm?StageID=9876
I’m confused on something, not one person is forced to go to these programs. I know plenty of people that have gone to these same places multiple times. [Redacted].
If you’re one of the people court ordered into these programs then that’s not voluntary involvement it’s forced. The only other option being to sit in jail and no one anywhere wants to be in jail.
You even just stated that the other option is to sit in jail…if there is another option, how can it be considered “forced”? There are also other programs – being released to a program is generally at the request of the person incarcerated, so they can request to go to any program they choose to.
Many judges mandate participation in particular programs.
And that means their abuse and fiscal malfeasance are cool?
[Redacted]. It’s so saddening that Virginia is turning into a rinse and repeat recovery housing place. Much like Florida.
The bill is indeed a small step but these recovery houses are kicking people out while using (depending upon who the user is) so that they don’t overdose or die on their watch. Thus relieving them of culpability.