SAN ANTONIO – Hope is the one thing no one can live without, and that’s precisely what recovery homes are trying to provide for people battling addiction issues.
In March, UT Health San Antonio announced that its program, Be Well Texas, received a $3.4 million grant for a pilot program to support recovery housing statewide.
UT Health San Antonio said the funds would help expand access to the program for Texans who are housing insecure and battling addiction. KSAT got a look inside one such recovery home in San Antonio, where people suffering from opioid use disorder receive treatment.
Recovery homes provide housing for people who are in long-term care for addiction. Clark Cadwallader, co-founder of New Day Recovery Services, took us inside one of his facilities — a home with multiple bedrooms, living rooms, a meditation room and exercise equipment.
Cadwallader told KSAT this one facility is geared toward people with opioid use disorder, something he battled years ago.
“I’m a person in long-term recovery. I got sober back in 2014,” he said.
“OxyContin was my main thing. [I] was first introduced to opiates through being prescribed [them] by a doctor for an injury,” said Cadwallader.
Now, Cadwallader helps others with the same struggle.
“We’ve seen a big uptick and especially in a lot of our younger population that we serve. Their drug of choice is now fentanyl,” he said.
People in recovery homes get help staying sober and accountable. Eventually, they transition into their regular lives and return to work. Cadwallader told KSAT the average person stays in his recovery home for about eight months.
Cadwallader stayed at a sober living facility when he struggled to stay sober. He said it improved his life and kept him on the right path.
Now that he’s eight years sober, Cadwallader said everyone in recovery needs to believe that things will improve, and recovery homes are a good start.
“There’s a solution that really works to this problem,” he said.
There are more than 40 houses and 440 beds in recovery homes throughout Texas within UT Health San Antonio’s network. The program, Be Well Texas, receives funding from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
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