By Ruby Gregg
Lexington City Council is giving a little over $11,000 to Hope House, a drug rehabilitation center for men, in Buena Vista.
“The only way to fight addiction is to fight it head on,” Buena Vista City Manager Jason Tyree said in an interview.
The newly renovated treatment center, located on Magnolia Avenue, is scheduled to open on April 15 and will house six men.
Hope House is owned and operated by Rockbridge Recovery, a nonprofit resource center for people who struggle with mental health issues and substance abuse.
The property was donated to Rockbridge Recovery in January 2023.
“There are no other facilities like the Hope House in our area. We’re the first in our region,” Lori Turner, the executive director of Community Foundation for Rockbridge, Bath and Alleghany County, said in an interview.
The Community Foundation is a charitable organization that connects residents, organizations and other groups with funding and resources to operate.
Turner said the Community Foundation helped Rockbridge Recovery get Hope House up and running.
“They had a house, but they didn’t have any way to make it happen,” she said. “We went out and found the funding for them to be able to make the renovations so that they could operate it.”
The renovation began last July. Turner said the building was in bad shape. It had been the site of a fire several years ago.
About the center
Hope House will serve as a transitional sober living house for men who are between drug rehab and drug-free living.
Buena Vista Police Chief Wayne Handley said the facility will provide stability for the men who will live there.
“Hope House is an opportunity for people to kind of get their feet underneath them so that we’re not pulling the rug out from under them as soon as they’re getting out of jail,” the chief said.
Turner said the six-month recovery program is step two in people’s recovery. While living at the center, patients will be provided with the resources and skills they need to get back on their feet, she said.
“They might need a GED. They might need a driver’s license. They might need help getting custody of their children,” she said. “Everyone is going to be unique. But whatever they need we’ll make sure they get all those things.”
The funding comes from the Opioid Abatement Authority (OAA), a state organization that distributes money awarded in lawsuits filed against pharmaceutical companies that were accused of perpetuating the nation’s opioid epidemic.
The OAA requires that Rockbridge County, Lexington and Buena Vista all agree to pitch in before money can be released for an initiative like Hope House.
In March, Lexington City Council approved $11,208 in funding for Hope House.
Buena Vista contributed $4,190 this fiscal year, and Rockbridge County agreed to add $39,986 to help Hope House operate.
Tyree said the Hope House will help clean up some of the region’s drug problems. He said he’d like to see the center expand to include women.
“To me, having a place here in Buena Vista means a world of a difference,” he said, “in terms of getting people back to work and getting people back to their lives essentially.”