12 comments
There should be no changes necessary. Since the inception of these regulations the safety and quality of recovery houses has increased 10fold. The number of accredited houses has increased 5 times over. The national standards recognized in this regulation has the support of operators nation wide and the VA legislative bodies. Each year the law that lead to this regulation is reviewed and expanded to ensure the standards, quality of care, and transparency are maintained at the highest levels. Other states look to VA and model their own policies based on this regulation. Any change has the potential to harm the people that utilize certified recovery residences.
VARR is a corrupt organization which only benefits those who are in charge of it. The control or recovery houses needs to be handed over to the state. Not the owner operators who are getting rich.
Due to investing in too many houses and a market down turn real estate investors have now become sober living investors purely to help with their cash flow. They skimp at every opportunity and create an environment where residents are being churned in and out weekly. The neighborhood around these investor houses suffer. The absolute ease in opening and operating a sober living house by just about anybody needs to be reigned in. They are leaning into the federal protections and operating with impunity at the cost of the residents and their neighbors. AirBNB is out, sober living investing is in.
VARR is a quasi government agency much like a CSB so VARR board of directors should by law be held to the same ethics CSB board members are required to abide by:
If DBHDS does this then all controversies go away, anyone in DBHDS can contact me and I will explain if you don't understand.
More and most important VARR is the solution for Virginia's un-housed addiction population, currently VARR certified recovery residence operators are saving Virginia taxpayers over a 100 million dollars a year just in correction diversion cost alone, VARR is the best value for our states addiction epidemic. I also believe the life saving value is most paramount and pales in comparison.
Hi there,
My original comment became hidden due to a town hall violation policy which I was unaware of. Here is my comment again Without naming specific recovery residences.
Most recovery residences exploit participants for Medicaid and should not be allowed to continue; constantly disregarding participants like they are trash is not helping the substance use disorder epidemic. I have also personally seen a lot of discrimination, inhumane treatment, and sexual misconduct by operators in this industry. We need reform for the recovery residences because the people that run them line their own pockets in a tremendous way that incentivizes a revolving door with these residences. Please consider the corrupt nature of the operators paired with a gross lack of oversight that will lead to more deaths and lawsuits in the future. These practices are highly unethical; these recovery residences prey on the most vulnerable people in our society seeking support.
Rebecca Leary
There is a paucity or legitimate programs. There is heavy incentive for resident recidivism. There is a great deal of nepotism and dubious levels of professionalism. Most of these programs are fair at best—those are the ones that keep people generally safe and use them as an income stream and then there are the bad ones that are run like prostitution rings and drug emporiums. Please stop this. There are good people that want to help.
There appears to be significant conflicts of interest within the VARR organization. My primary concern lies with the overlap between the board members being the owner/operators of the recovery residences receiving VARR funding.
This overlap raises red flags regarding potential misuse of funds. Reports of run-down facilities, lack of resources, and unsafe conditions for participants suggest a misallocation of resources intended to support addicts in their recovery.
It's crucial that VARR implements stricter oversight measures to ensure transparency and responsible use of funding. We must prioritize the well-being of the very people VARR aims to support -- those battling addiction
This regulation is not sufficient for "certified" recovery residences. The current system is not working to keep people safe. The "fox guarding the hen house" doesn't work. DBHDS needs to take an active role in regulating these homes.
As a taxpayer, we should know what this money is being spent on. Under the current system, the money goes into the hands of VARR, and from there, there is minimal to no oversight of how these funds are being spent and if they are going to the right places. It's been proven that DBHDS does not seem to have the will, the man-power, the authority, or some combination of the three to properly watch that this money is being put to good use and not lining the pockets of these recovery house and recovery center operators. Huge conflicts of interest have already been shown between VARR and these recovery organization operators. In my opinion, there is enough money to enable DBHDS to provide oversight directly to these recovery organizations, which would eliminate VARR from the loop completely and eliminate some serious perverse incentives.
Real estate speculators / house flippers are now installing sober living businesses into their properties that they cannot sell due to the current market conditions.
This is a pure profit move, and they are cutting every corner possible. They openly talk about how this move is almost bulletproof, with federal protections. If this continues to be allowed it will flourish at the cost of vulnerable people's path to sobriety.
There must be a way to eliminate these vultures from the recovery system.
Reading the other comments, it appears there is a misapprehension about the purpose of the law. This law exists solely to allow consumers to know whether a specific recovery residence has been certified either by Oxford House or by the Virginia Association of Recovery Residences (VARR) and prevents uncertified residences from representing themselves as such.
As written the does give consumers a way to verify whether residences are certified. I do not believe any changes to the law are necessary.
It's wildly reckless to allow freelance recovery houses to operate with zero oversight. The uncertified houses are full of fraud and corner cutting. People's lives are at stake. They are simply a state/federal money extraction scheme.
There needs to be much more scrutiny with these uncertified houses.