Pubdate: Tue, 18 Jul 2000
Source: Keene Sentinel (NH)
Copyright: 2000 Keene Publishing Corporation.
Contact:  60 West Street, Keene, NH 03431
Fax: (603) 352-9700
Website: http://www.keenesentinel.com/
Author: Jennifer D. Jordan

A KEENE SUBSTANCE-ABUSE TREATMENT CENTER'S HALFWAY HOUSE WILL SHUT ITS
DOORS THIS MONTH

Part of a substance-abuse treatment program in Keene will close its
doors at the end of the month because it is losing $100,000 a year,
say the program's directors.

Phoenix House N.H., formerly Marathon House, will close its 10-bed,
transitional living program at 103 Roxbury St. on July 31, said Amelie
Gooding, director of the program.

The program's main facility in Keene -- a crisis intervention and
sobriety maintenance program at 106 Roxbury St. -- will remain open.

"It just doesn't make enough money to support itself," Gooding said of
the 5-year-old, long-term living facility.

The impending closure concerns volunteer Peter A. Moses, who has been
involved with the program since it opened.

"I know it's saved a lot of lives," Moses said of the program. Moses
himself has been in recovery for 10 years. "There's nothing like it in
Keene. If they take it away, people will have no place to go.

"Some people cannot make it if they don't have a safe place. If they
go back to their old environment, they won't make it," Moses said.

The transitional living program is a halfway house for people trying
to stay sober.

Residents, who must work and pay $60 a week in rent, can stay for
between six weeks and a year. They are supported by a house manager,
who helps conduct meetings such as Alcoholics Anonymous sessions, said
Patrick McEneaney, executive director of Phoenix House N.H.

Other Phoenix House programs also offer temporary housing, but for
only 30 days or less, or offer services on an outpatient basis.

Part of the problem with the transitional-living center, McEneaney
said, was low attendance.

"We never had all the beds filled," McEneaney said. "We almost never
got over six" full beds.

Rent has to stay low, he explained, because residents are putting
their lives back together gradually, and most do not earn high wages
at first.

Another problem the program faced is a national issue, McEeaney
said.

"In Keene, the services we provide are not funded by insurance
companies, as we'd hoped. It's happening everywhere."

Phoenix House in Keene will continue to have some transitional living,
however.

McEneaney said Phoenix House will keep five long-term beds, moving
them to its main facility. The program will give up the building
across the street.

Some of the current residents have already been relocated, McEneaney
said; the rest will be helped by Phoenix House staff.

McEneaney said the agency would consider restoring the program "if the
circumstances were right."

Marathon House merged with Phoenix House, a substance-abuse treatment
program with 17 facilities throughout New England, last summer.

The program's other nearby locations, in Dublin and Brattleboro, are
not affected, McEneaney said, adding no jobs should be lost because of
the closure of the halfway house.

"Some jobs may be redesigned, but we don't anticipate any major
layoffs," McEneaney said. Overall, the program employees 25 to 30
people in Dublin, Keene and Brattleboro; about nine work at the Keene
facility.
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