Summit County is seeking agencies to provide temporary housing for recovering drug addicts while they wait for a spot in a treatment program.
Proposals to the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADM) Board are due by Nov. 7.
According to the board, “interim housing” is desperately needed in Summit County, where wait times to get into drug treatment centers after completing detoxification can be as long as weeks.
Experts say recovering addicts need sup- port and stability while they await treatment because returning to their old environments after detox can lead to relapse — and possibly death.
Wait times are long in Summit County partly because of a lack of inpatient treatment beds, which the ADM Board is also working to improve. Last month, the agency announced 20 new beds would open, which would boost the number of beds available to 127.
“As we continue to invest in our continuum of services to expand capacity, there is still a need to provide more interim support for those seeking help as they transition to the level of care needed to address their disease,” the ADM Board said in a statement.
The transitional housing could also serve those awaiting detox and long-term housing for recovering addicts, according to the board.
The need for interim housing was among a series of solutions the community suggested following a community forum on heroin that was sponsored by the Beacon Journal last month.
