One of Louisville’s largest addiction recovery and detox centers unveiled the latest progress to an expansion Tuesday, increasing the center's potential to provide aid for people in the area facing addiction.
The $29 million expansion is for the Healing Place Men’s Campus, an addiction recovery and detox center near downtown Louisville. Construction for the expansion started last year and is expected to finish in January 2019, adding nearly 200 beds for people seeking help there.
As he gave tours through the new facility built as the first phase of the project, Healing Place Chairman Jay Davidson thanked God and donors for the expansion. That new facility includes laundry rooms on every floor, elevators, updated kitchens and will include a classroom and area for men to visit with their children.
Healing Place spokeswoman Laci Comer said the expansion is important to the campus, which turns away hundreds of men monthly. The reason they can't serve everyone isn't because of people's lack of ability to pay – Comer said the treatment is at no cost to the clients – but due to bed shortages.
Comer said one man who was denied slept in a ditch for days until a bed opened for him.
“Our detox is turning away 200 to 300 men a month because we just don’t have enough beds,” Comer said. “We have an addiction epidemic in our community and we are seeing more and more people reaching out for help, and our existing facility just didn’t have enough space to accommodate the need.”
Wayne Griffin used to be one of the center’s clients, who saw people turned away due to bed shortages while he was completing the program. Now, Griffin works in the peer mentor office and said the program saved his life.
“It’s hard to see someone that wants to change their life or wants to stop the use of alcohol of drugs, and then we have to turn them away,” Griffin said. “That hope – the brand new building and the ability to house more men and get them off the streets – is a benefit for not only Louisville, but the state of Kentucky.”
Once the entire expansion is done, Comer expects the men’s and women’s campuses combined will serve around a thousand people daily. Donations from residents and organizations funded the expansion, but so far the project isn't fully funded. Comer said the center must raise $4.9 million more to finish it.
