House of Friendship adds men’s addiction care space
WATERLOO REGION — House of Friendship has launched a $3-million campaign to improve and expand its men’s addiction treatment services.
The agency bought the former women’s shelter Haven House in Cambridge and plans to move services there early next year from its current building in Waterloo.
“We can have a world-class addictions treatment centre here in the region,” said John Neufeld, executive director.
House of Friendship has offered a men’s residential addiction treatment program since 1975, at its King Street North location, a 130-year-old farmhouse that is crowded, not accessible for someone with mobility issues, and in the midst of student housing.
It’s not even big enough to house the 15 men in the program; five stay in another building around the corner.
“Great things happen there and the treatment is solid,” Neufeld said.
But the modern, spacious new building offers “increased dignity” for men seeking treatment.
The Concession Road house has far more space inside and out to allow for more privacy for residents and their visitors, and more treatment options for adding programs. It will bring residential and day programs under one roof.
Two-thirds of the money the Close to Home capital campaign hopes to raise to buy and renovate the building has already been received, with $1 million coming from the sale of the Waterloo properties and another $1 million from donations.
This will be the second time House of Friendship has repurposed a building that previously was a women’s shelter.
Back in 2012, it bought Anselma House in Kitchener and renovated it to bring women’s addiction treatment services into one spot.
House of Friendship provides addiction treatment services to 600 men and women in Waterloo Region each year.
Although addiction is often treated as a moral issue, Neufeld said, “it’s no different than any other health issues. There’s appropriate treatment for it.”
And addiction can touch anyone.
“It’s no respecter of age, class, gender,” Neufeld said.
J.P. Valeriote knows that all too well. The 46-year-old grew up in a happy, close-knit family in Guelph, one of five children. But then he began to notice a rift grow between his parents.
“I recognized home, family was starting to shake.”
He inadvertently found what he called “a solution” to that discomfort at home in Grade 9, when he was hanging out with his friends one evening and pot was passed around.
“It’s not that I went out looking for something,” Valeriote said. “I just remember the moment when I said ‘yes’ once.”
Eventually pot wasn’t enough, and he progressed to cocaine, crack and opiates.
“The years spin by pretty quick and before you know it I’m six treatment centres in,” Valeriote said.
Each centre was good and he learned a great deal, “but something was still missing.” He cycled between being clean and using, functioning for a couple years at work and then crashing.
“Each time it took a greater toll,” said Valeriote, who is married and has a daughter and granddaughter.
Two years ago, he was at the front door of House of Friendship’s King Street building because he was back to using.
“I again thought: what has my life come to.”
Valeriote spent almost six months immersed in the program, unlike previous ones that were no longer than five weeks. He found a real feeling of home there, and this time it clicked.
“It was the right time,” Valeriote said. “I really needed a new way to live and I needed to be supported emotionally.”
He continues to use the tools he learned there and now has a new outlook.
“Life is so much different,” Valeriote said. “I wake up today and I have hope.”
Find out more about the campaign at www.houseoffriendship.org.