Lighthouse Recovery Services is expected to open Sandy’s House, a new female housing facility for its substance abuse program as early as next month.
The 2,300 square foot home, which is designed to house eight women, is named after the late Sandy Rich, former director of Lighthouse, and will address the need of female-specific recovery housing.
Current Lighthouse Director Derrick Arthur said female recovery programming has always been needed. In fact, Lighthouse used to offer female programming, but when the recovery service moved to its current Hall Street location in 2014, it had to be phased out due to space limitations. Since then, Arthur said females in need of recovery services have been outsourced to other locations in Henderson, Hopkinsville and Louisville.
“We hope Sandy’s House will fill that gap in Owensboro,” Arthur said of the $268,000 home.
Some beds in Sandy’s House are already spoken for despite being at least a month away from opening, Arthur said, and the recovery service is taking names of potential candidates for remaining spots in the program. They are also looking for a house mother, someone Arthur said that is already established in her recovery and can live in the home to oversee evenings and weekends.
Lighthouse’s female recovery program will mirror the existing 18-month program for men — six months of residential treatment and 12 months of aftercare, with a 12-step recovery based process. They will offer parenting and life skills lessons as well as allow faith-based organizations to be a part of the program.
According to Arthur, women who are referred to Lighthouse through court order, probation and parole or simply walk in off the street are all welcome.
“We will allow anyone that needs help to come,” Arthur said.
Lighthouse has 36 beds for men in its residential program. Last year, they worked with 100 men, 21 of which graduated. And while that doesn’t seem like a very high percentage, Arthur is proud of the success rate.
“The hard part is not everyone is committed, even though they want to change,” Arthur said. “But we helped 21 men get through recovery.”
The eight beds in Sandy’s House, Arthur believes, will allow Lighthouse to help 20 to 25 women in 2019. He admits, not all will be successful in their recovery, but he is hopeful.
Arthur said Sandy’s House would not be possible without the support of Daviess County Fiscal Court who contributed $50,000 and Owensboro Health who contributed $20,000.
“The support from the community shows that we are meeting a need,” Arthur said. “Without Daviess County Fiscal Court and Owensboro Health, we couldn’t have done this.”
