Around Kensington, McPherson Park carries another name — “Needle Park” — due to the abundance of discarded devices used by drug addicts scattered about this public space. Used syringes, discarded “dime bags” ($10 sale size of drugs), and empty liquor bottles are easily visible around the lawn of the Philadelphia Free Library Branch building that sits in the middle of the McPherson Park.
Judith Moore has worked at the McPherson Branch library as its head librarian for the past 21 years. ”There has always been a drug problem here in Kensington, and in particular outside this library,” she says. “To me its never changed, never gotten better or worse.”
Jose Rosa is a Kensington resident and a father who takes his four children to this library daily. He says drugs are a real problem in the neighborhood, and he often fears for his children.
“Kensington and Somerset, Kensington and Allegheny,” says Rosa, are the worst drug sale locales in Kensington, as he points in the direction of those two intersections. “They are all bad streets, but the drugs seem to be everywhere around here.”
McPherson Park is just one of the places in Kensington where the impact on drugs on the community is noticeable. In 2007 the Philadelphia Weekly newspaper ranked the intersection of Kensington Avenue and Somerset Street as the worst drug sale corner in the city.
According to the most recent data available in the Philadelphia Neighborhood Information Systems crimeBase, 1,642 narcotics arrests occurred in Kensington in 2006. Yet, in the drug infested heart of Kensington something stands out that the neighborhood isn’t as well known for and perhaps this neighborhood needs the most: recovery houses.
A Place to Start Fresh
Fresh Start Foundation has several houses along Kensington Avenue to provide safe, structured and healthy environments for addicts seeking recovery. At this Foundation’s women’s facility at 2033 Frankford Ave., 16 women currently live together in a sober environment and undergo a specially designed treatment program.
The treatment program lays out a strict set of rules and schedules for the women to follow daily. Deborah Walley has been in the Fresh Start program for a month. She explains how Fresh Start is teaching her how to live a structured life without substance abuse after living the past 25-years of her life mired in drugs and alcohol.
“It focuses on recovery day by day,” says Walley, 49. “Each day we wake up at 5:30am and have have meetings, meals, and chores we have to do.”
Fresh Start Foundation has been in operation since 1989 and has had hundreds of graduates. Jodi McDermott graduated from Fresh Start nine years ago and is now the director of the woman’s program. McDermott explains, from her personal experience as a former addict, how Fresh Start gives the structure women need in their life to conquer addiction.
“When a person puts the drug down and goes into a 30-day treatment program they often times come out with still the same routines and behaviors they had when they went in,” says McDermott. “That’s why a lot of people aren’t successful at staying clean– you have to change your whole routine…because when you are using you don’t have a schedule, its just chaos.”
Between Two Worlds
Inside the women’s house at Fresh Start, the ability to recover becomes reachable because of aspects like a 24-hours-a-day supportive staff and the fellowship of other former users.
Ellie, who prefers her last name to not be used, has been in the Fresh Start program for over a year.
“The program has helped me build a new foundation with new friends,” she says. “I don’t talk to the people I used to use with, here it’s about starting a new life.”
Outside of the house, these women are not naive to what surrounds their haven of sober-free living.
“There are drug dealers that live across the street,” explains Ellie. “Oddly enough, they never seem to bother us…I’ve also become de-synthesized seeing it…I see the crack bags on the street and it now disgusts me.”
The streets around this house with a mission in Kensington are some of the most well known areas for drug dealers to do their business. Many of the women inside once spend their days on the very same streets obtaining and doing drugs. Charyl Small recently came to the Fresh Start program and has lived in Kensington for nine years.
“Kensington and Allegheny were my stepping stones,” says Small. “Everything is out there and its a really bad place if you are trying to stay clean– you’ll get into all kind of stuff around here.”
The Fresh Start program strives to show residents how to replace drug-abuse and negative behavior with positive behaviors. Those who meet the program’s requirements are given weekend passes and rewards during their stay at the house. With the help of the program, these women are able to ignore the temptations that are around them.
“Fresh start has made me not want to touch drugs. I had a problem staying clean on the streets, but here they’ve made me not want to use drugs again”, says Small. “We don’t go and interact with people on the street…this is your home, your family now. I stay with Fresh Start because I know everyone is fresh and clean here.”
Neighborhood Opposition
Fresh Start Foundation has seven houses in Philadelphia and over 212 beds available for those seeking recovery. The program accepts new clients based on an interview process and they must be involved in intensive out-patient therapy upon acceptance. Clients pay rent to live at the house and it receives no funds from the City or the state.
McDermott says the houses are almost always full and the need for a bed for a new client far exceeds what the Foundation offers. She also explains that the Foundation would like to expand but constantly runs into neighborhood opposition.
“Its amazing how its okay to have drug dealers on a corner but people do not want a recovery house on their block,” she says. “We constantly are stopped dead in our tracks. We have a hard time getting community support and have local legislatures stopping us from starting a new house.”
Fresh Start has a case-management component that differs from anything offered by other recovery-based recovery living facilities in Philadelphia and the houses are routinely inspected by the City of Philadelphia. McDermott explains a growing issue around Kensington where many recovery houses exist that aren’t officially certified.
“A lot of times someone will just buy a property and call it a recovery house and fill it up,” she says. “We try to do it the right way by having the city inspect and petitioning to getting community support and having signs put up so people know what we are.”
Currently, no official list of recovery houses in the city exists from the City of Philadelphia. The only requirement to have a recovery house in the city is to be a licensed boarding house.
“Its almost like its an underground network,” says McDermott.
Starting a New Life
Fresh Start strives to have their clients enter the workforce and live a substance-free life after gradation. To graduate from the program an individual’s case must be reviewed and a plan must be set of how they will live after they leave the program.
Ellie is close to graduation. With the help of Fresh Start she has recently obtained two jobs and completed Hepatitis C treatment. She is now waiting to be financially stable enough so she can find a place on her own.
“Its helped me get my life back on track,” says Ellie. “I’ve stuck it out because I know I have to. I don’t want to end up where I was before.”
As the struggle to stay clean exists for many in Kensington and throughout Philadelphia, at Fresh Start this goal is becoming more attainable day by day.
It’s always nice to see helpful people working hard to help those in need. Addiction is not something that anyone can recover from by themselves. Great article, and thanks for sharing this!