LITTLE ROCK — A nonprofit group called Oxford House International paid $1,300 for state House Republican leader John Burris of Harrison to travel to Washington, D.C., for a conference last September, Burris disclosed on his annual personal financial report.
The trip came after the state House Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Committee met in Harrison in May to hear Oxford House officials explain that their houses are aimed at enabling recovering alcoholics and drug addicts to live together “in a self-help environment that greatly increases the odds of sobriety without relapse,” according to the committee’s minutes.
The legislative panel learned that the men and women living in the Oxford Houses pay rent, utilities and other household expenses at more than 1,400 such houses; most have been through drug treatment and incarceration many times; and more than 80 percent of them avoid relapse.
“In its simplest form, an Oxford House describes a democratically-run, self supporting and drug free home,” according to the website for the Silver Spring, Md.-based group.
Two Oxford Houses are now operating in Harrison, and one each in Bentonville, Rogers, Fort Smith and Little Rock, according to Oxford House officials.
Burris said he wants the state to provide about $70,000 to cover the salary, benefits, travel and other costs of an outreach worker to help open more of the centers in Arkansas.
He said residents of Oxford Houses have a high chance of success to not relapse, and a Harrison house alone has saved enough jail and substance-abuse-treatment costs to justify the state picking up the tab for an outreach worker.
Department of Human Services officials have committed to provide $70,000 to contract with Oxford House for an outreach worker in the next fiscal year, Burris said.
Asked whether his push for the Legislature to enact more tax cuts than Gov. Mike Beebe has said the state can afford could undercut his push for funding for an outreach worker, Burris replied, “They may throw it in my face. I would hate to see recovering alcoholics and addicts suffer from politics. I don’t think they are going to do that. They have agreed to fund that.”
Department spokesman Julie Munsell said department officials’ commitment to Burris is that “we are willing to work to see more Oxford Houses opened up in the state to address the housing needs for people transitioning from treatment back into the community.”
“As part of that commitment, we are planning to contract with Oxford House to bring a staff person in to provide the technical assistance and training,” she said. “The exact amount would be determined by what Oxford House submits as their cost to provide this service.”
Munsell said the commitment would be for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
She said this is a good idea because people coming out of drug treatment often have a disadvantage because they “must return to the same conditions that contributed to the addiction in the first place.”
“By offering them an opportunity to access a continued support system that includes transitional housing, their chances for success at long-term recovery improves,” Munsell said.
She said there’s “no” chance that department officials could back out of this commitment.
“The funding source for this effort comes from the Substance Abuse Block Grant, which is all federal money,” she explained. The total grant is about $25 million and the money for the contract would come from the $340,000 training and technical part of that larger grant, she said.
Burris hasn’t talked with the governor about Oxford Houses, said Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample.
Although he reported that the Oxford House International paid for him to attend a conference in Washington, Burris said it actually paid for him to travel to Chicago to attend the group’s World Convention there.
He said he attended the meeting because the group offered to pay for him to attend and wanted him to meet its founder, the group’s World Council and its staff.
“It was a very enlightening experience,” Burris said. “I was more passionate about it afterwards. I would have helped them either way. ... I met hundreds of recovering alcoholics there that haven’t relapsed because of Oxford House. It was very inspiring in a lot of ways.”
The World Council is comprised of a dozen members, nine of whom live in an Oxford House, and three alumni, according to its website.
Former state Rep. Roy Ragland, R-Marshall, who was chairman of the House Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Committee when the panel convened in Harrison in May, said the committee met there to hear about Oxford House through its “economic development angle.”
“Burris convinced me that if we get people off drugs and alcohol and rehabilitated and back into society as productive citizens working and paying taxes, that it does help develop our economy,” explained Ragland, who now works for Secretary of State Mark Martin, another former GOP state representative. “That’s a true statement.”
Only five lawmakers, all Republicans, attended the committee meeting on May 13, 2010, according to the committee’s minutes. That was five days before the state’s primary election.
“There wasn’t a big expense to it, but I thought it was very worthwhile and educational to me,” Ragland said.
During its Nov. 13, 2009, meeting in Bentonville, the House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee heard a presentation from Scott Swanson about Oxford Houses, and Burris said he supports the concept, according to the committee’s minutes.
Swanson said in an interview that his Harrison Oxford House for men has five men and could hold eight, and his Oxford House for women has five women and could hold seven. They generally come from a substance-abuse treatment center, drug courts or prison, he said.
The rules for the Oxford Houses are that “you don’t drink and use, and you pay your own way,” Swanson said. “These guys tend to be tougher on themselves than a supervisor. They take ownership of the home literally. “
He said the houses in Harrison are “a decent investment,” but “it’s not a profit deal.”
“The whole idea is to charge market rent or maybe a little more than market rent because you are going to put wear and tear on the house,” Swanson said. “It’s a single family home and it’s run like one.”
Swanson, who is retired from North Arkansas College where he taught business and finance, said he charges a $100 move-in deposit and $75 a week for room and utilities and gets “tremendous support” from the community.
Jackson Longan of Oklahoma City is a regional outreach manager for Oxford House. He said he is one of two state financed outreach workers in Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services has a $144,000-a-year contract with Oxford House for two outreach workers who’ve helped double the number of Oxford Houses to 54 in Oklahoma, Longan said. Among Arkansas’ neighboring states, Louisiana and Texas also contract for outreach workers with Oxford House, he said.
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 02/20/2011