We want this work to be done right. We are not powerless, despite what those who may be taking advantage of the system may think.
Misty Whitehead, Henrico Supervisor, Three Chopt District
It’s been roughly four years now since Virginia dropped a bomb of power and money into the hands of a few Richmond area sober home owners and operators organized as the Virginia Association of Recovery Residences (VARR).
In response to “broad community feedback” calling for oversight of Virginia recovery housing, the state in 2020 created an optional path for sober home operators to become state-certified through the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS). Instead of directly overseeing state-certified homes, Virginia put VARR in charge of the credentialing, oversight and distribution of millions of taxpayer dollars designated for certified operators throughout the state (except for democratically run Oxford Houses). VARR kept most of that money in Richmond and Henrico County, where for-profit recovery homes continue to multiply.
For nearly two years, this series has been bringing to light a myriad of unethical practices reported in Metro Richmond’s VARR-certified sober homes — forced treatment with the operators’ business partners, signs of Medicaid fraud, sexual predation, exploitation of labor and retaliatory evictions, among other abuses of power — thanks to more than 150 residents, family members, employees and community members who have come forward to tell their stories and share evidence, with some bravely putting their names on the record (and many more to come).
In the wake of this reporting along with escalating concerns from sober home neighbors, Henrico County government leaders are uniting behind a call for reform.
At Thursday’s Board of Supervisors retreat, Deputy County Manager for Public Safety Michael Feinmel delivered a compelling presentation on the fallout of Virginia’s decision to let recovery house operators police themselves.
But first, he emphasized the county’s commitment to helping people in recovery.
What I want to convey to everyone watching is that there is a significant commitment from this county, from the people, the leaders of the county in front of me, from the sheriff and her staff, from the chief of police, the mental health team, the commonwealth attorney and her staff, the judges, probation officers, all of the court personnel, everyone has embraced the commitment to encouraging recovery and diverting persons who traditionally found themselves incarcerated due to what we’re now knowing as a health issue, from diverting them away from our traditional model into a more appropriate and more accepting response. So as I present over the next 45 minutes, hour … there will be many times where people might take away from this and say, “Well, this is just Henrico County that doesn’t want to accommodate recovery and doesn’t want to accept folks.” And that is not the case whatsoever. In fact, it’s 100% the opposite. …
(Clip sourced from the county government’s Youtube channel)
“Our residents want to see that those in need get the help and get the support that they should,” Feinmel said.
Our residents have concerns about the quality of support from what they’re seeing. Our residents have concerns about the lack of oversight that exists in this industry with recovery residences. Much of our community members’ concerns focus on the individuals that are living in the recovery residences and whether they’re being cared and provided for.
Virginia’s system of voluntary certification is not working, he said. It has left sober homes either without any oversight or with “first-party oversight.”
(In) both state code and administrative code, credentialing and oversight has been delegated to an organization known as the Virginia Association of Recovery Residences, or VARR. VARR is populated and is managed by recovery residence operators. Its directors come from the cadre of recovery residence owner-operators, and in essence the state has allowed the operators to be self-regulating, self-policing, and self-credentialing.
This is not working for many of the vulnerable people living in sober homes or for the communities in which those homes are placed, he said. Throughout Feinmel’s presentation, he outlined many of the same ethical issues that have emerged throughout this series.
He talked about the lack of qualifications for house managers:
There are no requirements of credentials or length of time for verified sobriety for a house leader or a manager. No requirements whatsoever. Somebody can be a week out of their own usage, which we know we would not define as a verified lengthy period of sobriety, and be put in a managerial role in one of these organizations.
(See Part 8, subsection titled, When clients are ‘staff’.)
He talked about unethical partnerships between sober homes and outpatient treatment centers:
As one journalist in the area has already uncovered, there exists an extreme potential that sober living residents, those living in the houses, will be mandated by operators to attend treatment at the recovery residence operator’s treatment center.
(See parts 1, 4 and 8, with more to come on the subject.)
This practice is concerning for a number of reasons. First of all, patient choice is legally mandated. A patient in recovery must be allowed by law to choose his or her own treatment provider. Also, that patient’s housing cannot be contingent on acquiescing to receiving services from a specific provider. …
There are some statutory protections for patient choice under Virginia law … but there are no guardrails on recovery residences that prevent them from ordering residents to go to specific providers.
He talked about at-will evictions:
The absence of standards and controls over the recovery residences allows these residences to evict their occupants with no standards whatsoever, (whether they are) paying rent, not paying rent, engage in sexual activity with the operator or don’t engage in sexual activity, whatever rule they want to set out, they have the ability to evict these residents at will.
(See Part 1, subsection titled, Removal of tenant rights, to review legislation that state Delegate Carrie Coyner, R-Chesterfield, sponsored on VARR’s behalf. See parts 6 and 10 for instances in which VARR-certified operators allegedly engaged in sexual relationships with their sober home residents, with more to come on that subject.)
Feinmel also revealed the uniquely high concentration of probationers living in Henrico County recovery homes.
After meeting with the local probation office, he learned that sober homes in Henrico County receive new residents from probation offices and courts throughout Virginia. Henrico County “accepts one of the largest, if not the largest, percentage of probation transfers anywhere in the state,” he said.
This sets up a scenario for evicted residents where a probationer, somebody who’s on probation, with no ties to this area, suddenly finds him or herself without a home to live in, in our community without resources, without support, and oftentimes still in the throes of their substance use.
According to the website of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences (NARR) — VARR’s parent organization — Henrico County has the fourth-highest number of certified recovery residences in the country, Feinmel pointed out. Henrico and Richmond together hold the No. 2 spot.
“So you ask the question why and you look at the localities that have high numbers of recovery residences there. And there’s a recurrent theme. And that recurrent theme, unfortunately, is fraud,” he said, before pointing to examples in Minnesota and Arizona.
And fraud in the area of addiction treatment is both a black eye on the efforts of the many across the country who work tirelessly to assist those in need of recovery. And it’s also a dirty little secret that really isn’t publicized as much as it should be.
(Clip sourced from the county government’s Youtube channel)
(See Parts 1, 4, 8 (subsections: The Medicaid cash cow at Journey House and Urine drug testing: false claims) and 10 to review the signs of Medicaid fraud I’ve reported to date in Richmond-area recovery housing.)
Feinmel also talked about VARR’s lack of qualifications to investigate complaints:
The folks that are doing investigations in this space, they’re actually employed, if that’s the right word, by VARR. They’re not even employed by (DBHDS). They don’t have an investigative background. They’re not retired law enforcement officers. They’re not anything. They’re just folks that they hired … Or even writing up a report or interviewing witnesses, no one has those skill sets that are operating in this space.
While Feinmel has known about and discussed sober home concerns for years, “This issue has come to a head recently,” he said, “as our community learned that there were new recovery residences opening for business in Henrico County. And I choose that terminology carefully because you will see that business is most certainly the root of this industry.”
We learned several months ago that an operator who actually was very recently convicted of a felony charge in Henrico Circuit Court, opened up what he’s styling to be a recovery residence in Henrico County, un-credentialed, not credentialed by DBHDS, not approved by VARR. And almost immediately, our residents, the neighbors of the house, began experiencing problems. (They) experienced neighbors intruding on their property, experienced inappropriate comments being made to young women walking down the street, observed what they believed to be alcohol consumption and potentially marijuana consumption of the residents there. And they brought that to our attention …
Feinmel didn’t name the operator of that recovery home, but I confirmed through several sources that the operator is David Rook — former president of VARR and former owner/operator of True Recovery RVA.
Screenshot: Virginia General Assembly video streaming website (background edited)
Rook provided me with an email response to the reported neighborhood concerns:
One resident was apparently followed out the neighborhood and seen purchasing alcohol. This was brought to my attention by the VARR office. The only part missing from the story is that the alcohol was seized within minutes of (the client’s) return to the house, (and) probation was alerted. The client has been sober since that day. It was his first day at the house. I have no knowledge of marijuana use on that property or trespassing in the (neighbors’) yards. Upon being made aware of the accusation we immediately installed cameras on the exterior of the house. No such events have been captured.
Rook started the paperwork to launch Next Frontier Recovery, LLC, just six months after he was arrested on drug and weapon possession charges in January 2023, at which point he says he re-established his recovery. Three months after that, he obtained a license from DBHDS to open a substance abuse Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) in Chesterfield, followed by another PHP on Quioccasin Road in Henrico County’s Tuckahoe district — a couple of miles from the sober home. (Despite the name, PHP participants aren’t hospitalized.)
Rook reportedly stocks the Tuckahoe PHP with residents of the same sober home that has drawn concerns from neighbors. He said in email that not all residents of that house participate in the PHP program and that the program has several participants who don’t live in his sober home.
Next Frontier shares the Quioccasin Road office with True Recovery RVA, which opened a PHP there the same month. According to organizational charts on file with DBHDS, both companies also share a vice president of clinical operations with River City Comprehensive Counseling Services, owned by VARR Vice Chairman Jimmy Christmas. DBHDS granted first conditional licenses for Next Frontier and True Recovery within eight and 33 days, respectively, of the dates they applied. Neither organization included additional staff names in their organizational charts.
According to DBHDS documents, Rook owns 100% of Next Frontier Recovery, and he projected initial annual revenue of $1.1 million ($685,892 profit) from just one PHP location. True Recovery reported nearly identical figures, bringing their combined expected profit to $1.37 million from a single PHP center. (Future installments will cover new Medicaid-funded outpatient programs opened jointly by Jimmy Christmas and sober home operators, the easy cash flow and the minefield of red flags.)
Until July, the Next Frontier website claimed the organization operated VARR-certified recovery homes. Next Frontier, however, has not yet been certified by VARR.
“The reality is we have no concept of how many un-credentialed, and hence unregulated, recovery residences we have in the county,” Feinmel said. “And again, I use that term ‘unregulated’ in air quotes, because, really, they’re all un-regulated.”
I think there’s a lot of folks in the Commonwealth who have relied on this industry, thinking that this industry was legit and (was) providing the level of services. But we talked to the family members who have lost loved ones in connection to this industry. They would tell us, “We thought we were doing the right thing.” Judges, lawyers, have sent people into these locations thinking they’re doing the right thing. But bad decisions that are made with good intentions are still bad decisions. And that’s where we’re at with this realm in the state. …
The question then becomes, where do we go? What can we do to effectuate change in this area? And efforts have been made, and in fact there are in the room champions of trying to make a difference. There are family members who lost loved ones in this industry who have tried to make a difference and who have spoken to representatives of the government and spoken to legislators.
(One of those family members is Patricia Godsey, whom you learned about in Part 9.)
And really now is the time where I’m challenging myself as well as others to try to be that change that’s needed in this area. …
I think that the time is now … to be vocal. I think the time is now for the battle to be fought. And the time is now to suggest potential legislation that actually has some teeth to it. Virginia could get out in front of this and really have what should be a model act for the entire country in this area.
Feinmel presented the following recommendations (taken directly from his PowerPoint presentation):
Credentialing
- “Make credentialing by DBHDS mandatory to operate as a Recovery Residence
- Can create a carve out for Oxford Houses from VARR
- Remove VARR as the credentialing agency and place this authority with DBHDS – can still require VARR accreditation as the Code currently does, but create more robust requirements to be met by DBHDS
- Class 1 misdemeanor to operate Recovery Residence unless credentialed/certified by DBHDS”
Workgroup
Renew Sen Subramanyam’s workgroup proposal (See previous article about legislation Subramanyam sponsored earlier this year.)
- Include representatives from localities, including 5 localities in the Commonwealth with most Recovery Residences – allow locality to designate representative on this workgroup
- Include representatives of the community, including families who have loved ones affected by recovery residences
Work Group should develop guidelines for DBHDS to require in credentialing, including, but not limited to:
- Ensure Patient Choice
- Codify Standards for Management, including verifiable period of sobriety for house manager and external checks on ability of house manager to sanction residents
- Create Residents’ Bill of Rights and mandate Recovery Residences to adhere to Bill of Rights
- Develop protocols for Termination of Residency
- Mandate uniform Data collection for Recovery Residences with transparent platform maintained by DBHDS
- Require Recovery Residences to publicly state services offered and levels of support
- Uniform occupancy requirements and baseline house safety requirements
DBHDS Commissioner Nelson Smith “is 100% … in support of convening this work group again and putting this group together,” Feinmel said. “This is an important first step.”
Hotline
Create Hotline for Complaints against Recovery Residences:
- Make information of complaint available to locality
- Allow Locality to conduct investigation into complaint, in conjunction with or in lieu of DBHDS, with all information shared between locality and DBHDS
- Require DBHDS and locality to report findings of violation to locality and Circuit and District Courts
- Develop protocols for Sanctions, including de-certifying Recovery Residences when findings of violation occur
Authority of Locality
- Allow locality to prevent operation of a Recovery Residence when operator is not credentialed by DBHDS (will be a Class 1 Misd)
- Locality (Fire Marshal, Building Inspector, Community Revitalization) allowed semi-annual inspections as well as inspections in response to complaints
“We need voices in this realm,” Feinmel said.
We need support. We need to make changes. We need to lean on everyone in this room, everyone in front of me, everyone online to reach out to the state and to give the information about what it is that we’re seeing. Our residents need this. Our residents deserve this. And quite frankly, the residents of the recovery homes deserve this.
If you want to get in touch with your lawmakers, you can find the legislators who represent you, along with their contact information, by using the state’s Who’s My Legislator? service. If you live in Henrico County, you can find your local representative here.
Feinmel’s call to action was met with unanimous support from the board.
Misty Whitehead, Three Chopt District
I think you and others know that you will find voices at this table. … You need a voice, I’m always happy to be a loud voice for the right things. …
I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to have changes at the state level, because when I think about it, it does remind me of how there was a period of time where the group homes for juveniles had run amuck. And it was a crisis point because, I mean, folks, it is an industry where you can make money hand over fist. And I remember the frustration of seeing them pop up everywhere and, you know, of varying quality. And it really was the children that were impacted the most. And, as (Feinmel) pointed out, there was a ton of regulation on group homes for juveniles, and I’m optimistic that we’re going to be able to make that analogy to get those changes done at the state level. But I don’t want to miss the opportunity that we have as a locality. … I don’t want to walk away with, we’ve hit our heads against the wall as to what we can do as a locality, so all we can do is try to impact change in a state level. Because it may very well be that bad actors are taking advantage of that very thing and saying, “You know what? They can run their mouths all they want to but, really, what can they do?” And there actually is a lot that we can do. And it will take all of the resources in this room. … So for anybody that may be wondering and listening, I think we need to definitively state, if you are a good provider and you are in this business because you actually want to be accountable and you want to do it the right way, and you want to have the respect and the esteem of folks to entrust these very vulnerable people to your care, you will absolutely receive the support that you need. We will help you to get established, we will make sure that you get the assistance that we can provide on this level. But if you are on the other end of that, we will bring to bear everything that we can, whether it’s hosting community meetings so folks have an understanding as far as what’s going on and know what to look out for, whether it’s making sure that our police know what’s going on in any given area, whether it’s coordinating with Virginia State Police. Whatever it is, we do have power in this room to make sure that this is not a hospitable environment for those who do not mean well by this community. So, I just want to put that out there that, yes, we want this work to be done right. We are not powerless, despite what those who may be taking advantage of the system may think. And that we are all on one accord in that regard.
Roscoe Cooper III, Fairfield District
So this is important for us to do this work. I hope that we can figure out a way to help our legislators to ensure that the persons who are not doing the work the right way cannot do that work. Because these people are my members. They’re my community members. They’re my family. And to use them as a way to enrich yourself by billing for services that you’re not providing and not allowing them to receive the services that they need is criminal. It’s criminal. Let’s call it what it is. To be enriched by taking advantage of the least and the lowest when they’re at their lowest point. And I’m proud to be in a county that takes this seriously, you know? So anything I can do, we can do, please know that I’m supportive of it because it impacts us.
Tyrone Nelson, Varina District
We are committed to the work of this. … In no way are we saying this is “not in my backyard.” We, as a locality, decided to tackle this (public health issue) many years ago. So this is not NIMBY at all. This is oversight as it relates to the challenges of authentically caring for people. … I haven’t delved into these cases, so I’m not casting (aspersions) upon anybody, but what we do want is when folks go to recovery homes, that they are getting the help that they need and that these are not places where people are getting money from the state, living lavish lifestyles, and people are not being treated, etcetera. So I just want to make sure that that’s what our focus is.
Daniel Schmitt, Brookland District
A lot of times we have to make decisions that have impact on single groups. We discuss something, we try to fix a problem that affects a user group. In this particular case it struck me while Mr. Cooper was just speaking that the work being done in this regard is really circular in impact. Not only does it affect the user group, the group in need, it has tremendous impact on the folks operating these recovery homes reputably. There’s nobody that wants bad operators and out-of-compliance operators more regulated than people who are doing it correctly and who want to do it correctly. It certainly has impact on concerned citizens who we all hear from. It has impact because it’s the right thing to do for the betterment of our community as a whole. So the impact here is unique in one respect because it serves everybody involved in this situation. …
That exact presentation … is ready to be pushed on the state level. It is ready for Henrico to take the lead, again because of the circular impact. … This is not about not in my backyard. This is about, this has to happen in our community correctly for it to have impact in the way we want it to. So let’s do what we need to do to make it have impact correctly. And that is gather the group that we need help to make this happen. …
I’m also fully supportive of any time we see fraudulent activity going on in this regard, we step on it hard and fast. And because fraudulent activity will continue to give an effort like this a scar that I do not wish to have. If we’re fighting the fight here to make this a reputable plan and operate the program, and regulate it and offer these services, fraudulent activity is an obstacle to that because of the optics that it gives to the public. … I would certainly as a side note support that we step on any of that hard and fast when we see it.
Jody Rogish, Tuckahoe District
I spoke with Rogish the day after the meeting. He told me:
I’m encouraged that Henrico County is taking this seriously, especially since … we’re number four in the country in terms of recovery homes. And, like everybody has said, this is not a NIMBY thing. This is not a, “We don’t want this.” … I just think that we need to do it correctly. And I think that’s what everybody wants.
(Henrico County is) really trying to make a difference and hold everyone accountable. … And if the private entity, VARR, can’t do it, then either DBHDS needs to do it, or the county needs to do it or a combination.
Two days after this article was published, Henrico County made the video of the meeting available online. Cari Tretina, chief of staff to the county manager, gave the following recap:
(Clip sourced from Henrico County government’s Youtube channel)
While Henrico leaders are uniting behind a drive for oversight, VARR and Coyner are pushing a bill that would help recovery homes open in localities that have not been welcoming to such facilities, but would also give VARR more power. That update will be coming soon.
Corrections
1. For about an hour after this post was first published, Misty Whitehead’s district was incorrectly referenced in one place.
2. Minor corrections were made to several of the transcripts upon reviewing the county’s meeting video, which was posted two days after this article and produced better quality audio. The quotes’ substance was unaffected by the corrections.
Scroll below to view investigative stories in The Parham Papers series, or visit the homepage to explore all articles, including legislative updates.
*Some of the audio I obtained from the Board of Supervisors meeting was muffled. I placed several ellipses (…) where the audio could not be transcribed. I plan to fill in these gaps after the county makes the video available online. (Completed Sept. 12, 2024)
Shouldn’t have gone out to the west end David…. They don’t play that out there.
Rich white folks are mad that they’re living next to a house of people recovering from substance use disorder. Most of which are African American at Next Frontier Recovery.
Your willingness to use those trying to regain their life, African American or anyone, and deflect accountability onto “rich white folks” proves how far you will go to maintain control. Bringing race into this just shows how desperate you are. Sounds like the “rich white folks” care more than you do.
Seriously? If you think the upper class white folks that populate the suburbs of the west end are happy that a recovery house full of mostly black folks opening in their neighborhood, then you’re ignorant. Not in my back yard is a real thing. Stigma towards people with substance use disorder is very real, it’s doubled when it’s a person of color with substance use disorder. Do you think these neighbors saw the recovery house open and are only upset because “David Rook bad man”. Give me a break. Good try, though.
Interesting how you’re focusing on one house when there’s countless number of houses with issues AND people being mistreated, abused and some who lose their life. Where’s your outrage for them? What is your aversion to oversight? Can’t that improve their chance to recover? Henrico has never asked for any house to be shut down only for oversight. what about the rights of the participants? I remember seeing a video where’s there’s a different set of rules for David and that was ok. Tillem gives other people’s suboxone to others, Frank screams and verbally intimidates, and Bagby clearly “likes” women. If a participant did any of those they be in jail or violated. You seem to be projecting stigma yourself.
I was responding to a comment directed at David Rook about the west end and how he shouldhave stayed out. I’m no fan of the things those operators do. But if you think stigma and race didn’t play a role in this particular scenario of neighbors complaining, then you’re willfully ignorant.
Way to make this about race and not the issue at hand. Maybe some of those homeowners don’t want strangers waking through their yard. If you think about it honestly for more than two seconds you will come away with the same conclusion. A little NIMBY? Sure, is it simply “we don’t want the blacks in our streets” ? Almost assuredly no.
Really glad to see Henrico county catching on to the truth about what has being going on here in the Richmond recovery community and the FRAUD.
To everyone who said this is just some “girl” writing a “blog” and nothing has happened and nothing will be done….
Where you at now?
hi! it’s me! i’m one of them! what has happened? nothing.
We shined a light on your dusty soul.
It’s coming. This is just the start. Don’t you worry!
The way some of these operators have seemed to be cutting ties with others is pretty telling tho… could be some people have gotten a heads up that something is coming
Can you give an example of who’s cutting ties with who? Just curious.
Mr. Rook,
Your next frontier needs to be far away from Richmond VA.
Let’s include ALL of Virginia, please!!!
(Redacted.) Henrico jail is the wild west and conditions are HORRIBLE, drug use is rampant. Henrico county can’t manage their jails, what makes them think they can manage anything else?
This is a great question
Henrico County has a program that they’ve developed to certify and monitor recovery houses. It’s called CHIRP. Henrico will only mandate it’s inmates to CHIRP certified recovery residences. I wonder why that wasn’t mentioned. My guess would be that CHIRP is a tedious and meaningless failure of a program.
CHIRP was thoroughly discussed by the same Deputy County Manager a couple of issues back in this series. These fraudulent “recovery houses” are the only thing that’s a failure across the board, and incredibly dangerous to anyone having to go there for “recovery”. Not a fantastic array of choices that they have to pick from. Literally, pick your poison.
I was referring to the board of supervisors meeting when I said that CHIRP wasn’t discussed, not this blog. Henrico county has repeatedly “iced” recovery housing operators whenever the operator has done anything Henrico was unhappy with. “Iced” meaning that Henrico stopped allowing court mandations to a operator that has fallen out of favor. CHIRP has made numerous demands of operators, those operators get iced when they don’t comply. I’m not sure to which “fraudulent recovery houses” you’re referring, but there are great many people improving their lives drastically using the support of VARR certified recovery residences. I’m one of those people, I would be dead without the help of the RCO where I landed after my release from jail. I’ve seen people have bad experiences for different sometimes due to bad practices of the operators, but mostly due to bad personal choices of the resident. I do agree that there is work to do, but in my experience the good far outweigh the bad with certified recovery homes. I’ve lived it, this my life. I’m not a spectator reading a blog.
I’m not sure how you’ve come to the conclusion that these houses are a “failure” or dangerous, but I can find a lot more former participants that would disagree with your statement than would agree. Plenty of us have gotten help in these houses..
Henrico County got duped by Mike Tillem. I hope they can see that now. He runs the majority of the houses in the county and, while not all published here, has probably had the worst outcomes in terms of mistreatment and mishandling of recovery residents and their families. All the while, he continues to open “treatment” businesses and has no credibility, advanced degrees or education. He simply states he’s got 22 years “clean.” Clean from what? He’s certainly not clean from harming and discarding others on his singularly focused journey (pun intended) to clout, status, and bank deposits.
Have you ever met Mike Tillem? To suggest that multiple “prestigious” county supervisors could be fooled by Tillem’s aww shucks routine is laughable. Henrico CHIRP has all certified recovery housing organizations processes and procedures on file. Including criteria used to select house leaders. For Henrico to pretend like they did not or do not know exactly what is going on in these recovery houses. Henrico routinely requests these organizations to develop and share organizational policies when they feel they, and the houses either comply or lose their CHIRP certification.
Yes, I have met Mike Tillem.
I think it’s a great step in the right direction to dismantle VARR, have all recovery organizations be regulated by dbhds, and require all of these new PHPs (partial hospitalization programs) which are meant to be clinical btw to be run by actual clinicians. Rook has absolutely no business running anything clinical and no business running ANYTHING recovery related atm. He needs to take the cotton out his ears and put it in his mouth for a sec and maybe he can actually stay clean this time..
Spoken like someone who has absolutely no idea what they’re talking about.
lol I have worked with rook, bob d., Coleman, Caitlyn, and everybody else named in this series. Not only have I worked with them, I’ve sponsored at least one of them. I was there at the start of whole programs that they were participants in before all this mess got started. I’ve seen this journey from its inception. I know these people, I’ve met their kids and their parents. I knew rook’s ex-wife and bob’s mom. To say I have no idea what I’m talking about is laughable. The parity of recovery that these people have perpetuated is one of the most egregious affronts to our community of recovering people that has ever been. If YOU don’t see that then it’s YOU that has no idea what you’re talking about.
Sense you know everything and will stand on it why are you anonymous?
Because I’m still in the community. I still go to meetings and would like to be able to continue to engage with the community without all the drama that comes with publicly speaking out. If you’re in the new dominion area you know exactly why I’m anonymous. You’ve seen kate’s outbursts and paranoid delusions surrounding this blog. These people will take any petty revenge they can on anyone who speaks out and you know that.
Here we go. N.A. speak again. You guys do know that if dbhds takes over, your precious program will be relegated to a very minor role in the recovery house culture. Which is fine by me because, quite frankly, it doesn’t belong there anyway.
Just bc I’m a member of NA (and I only say that bc I’m anonymous) doesn’t mean I believe that is everyone’s path or the only path to recovery. I meant what I said when I said these places should be regulated by dbhds and I understand what that means. It’s not in participants best interest to be required to attend only 1 pathway to recovery just like it’s not in their best interest to be required to attend IOP (since not every participant will benefit) or only see 1 specific provider. NA is not clinical and neither are these places even though things like PHP are meant to be
Again, you’re talking about these phps not being clinical again, based on what exactly? Your distaste for the people that own them? It’s certainly not based on anything else. I think the clinical staff of these places might disagree with you, they worked hard for their degrees and certifications. A recovery organization can’t be everything to everyone. There are (and should be) 12 step based organizations, faith based organizations, organizations that require clinical engagement, etc. A person who isn’t a Christian should not go to a Christian faith based organization for help, if they did then they certainly shouldn’t expect to complain and have their entire program changed in the name of “infinite pathways” The fact that we have such diverse recovery in our area is a good thing. Go to the organization that sounds the best for you.
Sure thing buddy
Why would NA members care what role NA plays in “recovery house culture”? I go to NA meetings for my recovery. I don’t give a shit if people living in recovery houses go to NA meetings. Your comment is goofy.
Sense instead of since is all I need d to read about this comment
VARR had plenty of warning. I asked a cop once why his Dad lost his sheriff seat. “Well, he fu-ked his self”
What does this even mean?
In this proposal of Feinmel’s, he seems to suggest getting rid of VARR while allowing Oxford to continue running as it always has. Oxford House, who most know nothings who read this crappy article will blindly applaud for being “democratically run” and “not for profit”. I’ve lived in both VARR certified and Oxford Houses, and I’ll tell you all that I’ll take a VARR house every single time. I know of an Oxford house where an overdose victim lay dead in their room for days before being discovered. I know of many an Oxford House that have devolved into trap houses after the occupants democratically decided to go on a crack binge together. But hey, at least they held a group conscience once a week and no one made any money. That’s all these 12 step dinosaurs really care about, the only one who should make any money from recovery is their cult and it’s leaders. I’m in recovery and I have a $40 T shirt from my non profit tax exempt cult to prove it.
Weird.. I have the exact opposite experience.. Oxford isn’t “12 step” and since it’s democratically run and the members vote on the rules why didn’t you ask to call a vote in the house for a change in any rules that require you to attend 12 step meetings? If an Oxford house goes south, chapter steps in and disbands the house. There is oversight at Oxford houses that doesn’t exist (but is supposed to via VARR) with these other organizations. If one of these operators starts smoking crack with his participants (lookin at you Rook) who steps in? Nobody.
Who hurt you? Also, if NA was a cult, you couldn’t have left. Read about some actual cults. Were you forced at gunpoint to buy a T-shirt? Read the Seventh Tradition sometime. Or don’t. See, no one in the “cult” is making you do anything. 🤣🤣🤣
Medicaid and State Opioid Response Funds originate at the Federal level which means there are standards and consequences for fraud, personal gain, and mismanagement. Might be an interesting project for a Law School Cohort.
https://www.grants.gov/learn-grants/grant-fraud.html
I run a recovery house operation here in Richmond. In reading what the Henrico supervisors want to have in place, I agree with all of them.
I do have one concern – protocols when you have to remove someone. I agree there has to be protocols. What I’m afraid of is there will be protocols in place that makes it difficult to remove someone. Let me give you a few examples:
1. I had a man in my men’s house that after he was admitted to the house (within a few days) started making threats to other residents. He also possessed ammunition and possible weapons. He had his own vehicle, and unknown to us until later – displayed classic narcissistic behavior. I ended up having to go to the house with a halve dozen of Henrico police to remove him. The other residents were sent to my other men’s house to wait in safety while this person was removed. To quote one of my other male resident at the time – “Everyone was terrified of {him}”. In the end the man left quickly and violence was avoided. We made no effort to try to relocate this person for there was no reasoning with him. His narcissistic behavior made it so it was everyone else fault, him having weapons was our fault, and he could do as he wanted.
2. At my first woman’s house, I had someone who was supposed to be the house manager. This person instead turned the house into a drug house for her friends. I get a call from VARR (I’m very thankful for that phone call) telling me this and I sprang into action immediately. I did a search and there were drugs, scales, and other items in the house in several people’s stuff. I had to clean house. Two people were allowed to stay after they passed UI test in a controlled setting. The rest were removed that day. The reputation damage that girl caused took a few months to recover from. From what I know – this girl turned out to have a rap sheet as long as your arm. Everything from a bunch of larceny charges to child endangerment to identity theft. My mistake was not running a national background check on her beforehand.
3. A girl at my first woman’s house was admitted and when doing the medication documentation check – the person was on over 40 medications. I’m not kidding. She had a big box full of various pills. All prescribed and legit. In less than 48 hours it became apparent that the woman could not stay at the house. She displayed behaviors of paranoia, blaming others for everything, leaving medications everywhere (this was a danger to other residents), and not following house rules. In this case, we got with the company that sent her to us and explained to them she needed a higher level of care than we could provide. They sent a van to come pick her up and ended up taking her to Tuckers.
4. A girl is admitted into a woman’s house and within a few days is found to be stealing other people’s stuff. Both video evidence and performing a search finds other people’s belongings in her stuff. She was removed that day. We provided her with the SAMHSA’s National Helpline phone number. None of the other women in the house wanted her there and wanted her removed immediately.
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In all of these examples – any type of delay would have caused issues with other residents in the house. I agree there HAS to be protocols on when you remove someone. I do also say there has to be ways to remove someone immediately when they are a source of harm to other residents. Any type of removal that is done unethically MUST be prevented.
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One thing as a operator I deal with on a frequent basis is being lied about. I’ve been stolen from, multiple attempts at extortion, frequently lied to, and other dramas that are just too many to mention. I’ve even had my wife threatened if I didn’t give a person money. In just about every case, the person who attacks me or badmouths me is in fact in denial of their personal issues such as rage, accountability, their addiction, or in some cases being a narcissist (which means they are physically wired and there is just no way to truly help them. If you google narcissist physical characteristics you will see for example the empathy part of their brain is for lack of a better way of saying it – is either missing or just doesn’t work.)
I do my best to not get angry, but to instead try to understand why the other person is doing it. All I want to do is help people and see them be the best version of themselves. In some cases, that just isn’t possible. Some people you just can’t reach.
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For the other items that the Henrico supervisors want – a big part of all of it is ACCOUNTABILITY. Many houses out there have little or no supervision over them. Inspections? Who are we kidding? My houses are certified by VARR yet I’ve only been visited once. My 3rd house is not yet certified for we are finalizing everything in the house before we get inspected. I say ALL THE TIME to people – if you want to inspect our facilities, we welcome it. We WANT to be held accountable. We want to do better. Why do we feel like this? Simple – it is about the people we are trying to help. The better we do, the higher the likelihood the people we are helping will do better in their recovery.
Last thing – I have no problem having Christa Motley coming to visit our facilities, interview residents, look at our policies and procedures and so forth. I love what Christa is doing and fully support her work. I do this for we as owners in the recovery business have to be held accountable for there are many lives that depend on what we do.
What organization do you run?
There was an article about a young man found dead on the side of the road in Chesterfield one morning after McShin kicked him out his recovery house the night before. This was front page news in 2018. The circumstances under which recovery house residents are removed from recovery programs has greatly improved since then. I myself was given an hour to vacate an Oxford house in Chester after a single use, no resources or anything, just get tf out. Nowadays most operators won’t remove folks for single uses, and multiple use removals come with a referral to treatment in most cases. Oxford was a nightmare, rigidly 12 step, with no MAT acceptance, no oversight, no peer support. (false statements redacted)
Sorry that happened to you but every Oxford house is different. You shouldn’t base your opinion of all Oxford houses based on one house. Oxford is democratically run with means that members of each house vote on the rules for that specific house. I know Oxford houses that are MAT friendly and even ones for women + children. Each house has its own rules but is regulated and overseen by a chapter that makes sure everything is fair and safe. Oxford saved my life after I was failed by these Richmond area providers.. please see that your experience isn’t indicative of everyone’s experience.
Likewise, Richmond area providers saved me after Oxford failed. I’m sure the things I found detrimental at Oxford you found helpful. The democratic running of a house by a handful of folks in early recovery sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. I’m sure there are instances where it turned both amazing and horrible.
Most of the time people in Oxford houses will have varying lengths of clean time, not just “a handful of people in early recovery”. Also, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, clean time doesn’t equal recovery.. at least if there is multiple people voting on rules of a house you have a better chance of SOMEBODY doing the right thing. If you only have 1 person in charge and they start using (like Kate when she relapsed) what happens then? Like I said if the Oxford house goes south, chapter steps in and will disband the house. When kate started getting high did her husband (Anthony, president of VARR) impose any type of guardrails to keep WAR foundation safe for their participants? Nope. He’s got a direct financial tie to that business so no way he’s gonna step in. The conflicts of interest here are glaring..
Sallys House
Dbhds is full of the same cronyism that VARR is being accused of. Bureaucrats and gatekeepers. Can dbhds show where they’ve used a comparable amount of money and positively affected as many as VARR recovery houses have with indigent bed funds? I doubt it. My experience with them shows them to be bloated and wasteful bullies with cushy jobs and passive aggressive email exchanges. I would love to see Christa comb through their employees social media pictures and post the ones of them in designer clothes or pictures that make them look like thugs. I’m willing to bet there’d be a lot more examples to choose from.
Be so for real right now people on a state income can’t afford designer clothing and they’re subject to wayyyy more scrutiny than these owners. People who work for the state are reporting an expected income of 1.1mil a year homeboy. These people are making BANK off the backs of people trying to recover. Dbhds isn’t full of the level of corruption that these organizations are.. not even close.
You can easily do your own research on this, homeboy. The higher ups at dbhds are not living life on a humble state salary. Many of our “public servants” enrich themselves well above their salaries with all sorts of tactics. Keep waiting for the government to save you. You’re adorable
I’m not waiting for the government to “save me”.. and save me from what? The corrupt individuals who are making millions exploiting people who are just trying to recover? I feel sorry for you if you think letting random people police themselves with the handling of MILLIONS OF DOLLARS of tax payers money is the answer. These recovery houses should be regulated just like every other industry, it’s literally just common sense bro
Why are people mad about oversight? If nobody’s doing anything wrong then they should welcome the process. The opposition makes no sense.
Seriously! If nothing is wrong and everything is on the up and up there should be no problem at all with dbhds or any other governing body coming in and combing through every file and financial record. People keep saying “there no there there” “Christa has no idea what she talking about” … listen, one thing is for sure my friend… where there’s smoke there’s fire.
I run Sally’s House. I’m BEGGING for oversight. What we have right now just isn’t working. If I do something wrong, the worst I can expect is a phone call. I’m TRYING to run an ethical company. The stuff I have seen with my own eyes at other house….it is appalling to say it mildly.
I have been physically threatened along with my wife, attempted blackmail done to me, threats of lawsuits….
I tell everyone- please come inspect our houses. Ask my residents about me and my staff. We WELCOME oversight. We want to be better. We want this for it’s about the people who we want to help.
I appreciate that
Even after all of Christa’s reporting on the Journey House Foundation.: The $740K (taxpayer dollars) they received from VARR via DBHDS, the 40 people who were interviewed, a threat of violence made to someone who spoke out, and the participants who passed away whose families cannot get answers to questions, SAARA and DBHDS gave them another $2500 in grant funds for another project earlier this month.
VARR is not effective whatsoever as its oversight is traditionally run by owners of the organizations that are supposed to be managed by VARR. It’s a meaningless rubber stamp. How is Starfish still operating with the proven mismanagement? Oh, because Frank Bellinger’s wife is on the VARR board. I saw and heard so many inappropriate things there including Frank walking into my women’s house and bedroom without notice after 10 pm because he was in yet another rage about something.
This is such an important step for Henrico County. Supporting sober homes and ensuring they’re effective is crucial for so many families here. I’m curious—what kind of feedback have local residents provided about these reforms? It’s great to see leaders listening and coming together to make positive changes. Do you think this initiative will inspire other counties in Virginia to adopt similar measures? I’d love to hear more details on how they’re addressing accountability and community integration for these homes. Kudos to Henrico for prioritizing this issue! 💙🏠
The Bellingers running starfish recovery are criminals and need to be investigated further. They are living off government funding and getting away with so much more.