Like many other homes, plants sit on the window sill of a nondescript house on Washington Avenue in Chehalis. But for Lewis County Drug Court participants, the plants hold a special significance.
Participants receive one after completing the first phase of the program and are encouraged to treat them “just like their recovery," feeding and nurturing them daily, Drug Court Manager Stephanie Miller said.
“And they will thrive,” Miller said, referring to the plants and participants.
Since 2019, Lewis County Drug Court has offered participants an opportunity to live at the house while in the program’s early phases. Miller said roughly two-thirds of current participants in the Drug Court population accessed the house when they first started, and the average stay is between six and nine months.
“The reason that Drug Court started providing housing in the first place is because they saw that people weren’t as successful in the program because of all of the challenges they faced out in the real world where they couldn’t find housing,” said Eric Eisenberg, Lewis County housing and infrastructure specialist.
Drug Court is a voluntary program for those struggling with addiction and charged with a felony that typically lasts between 16 and 22 months. Successful graduates have their criminal charges dismissed.
The house has space for 12 residents in the program's first two phases, and, as of Thursday, the spots were full. While participants aren’t required to stay in the house, Miller said the home provides increased accountability in the program.
“Most of our participants, when they enter, they’re homeless or they don’t have a safe residence to list as an approved address,” Miller said. “So it gives them a place to start their road to recovery.”
After renting the house for multiple years, Lewis County began to explore potentially purchasing the property. In March, the county received a $467,000 state grant to buy the house for use by the Drug Court. Lewis County Commissioners officially accepted the funds earlier this month.
Like Miller, Eisenberg said the house offers stability.
“Even the ones who do have someplace to stay, oftentimes with other people, it’s not sober housing,” Eisenberg said. “And it’s really hard to get clean if other people in the house are using.”
Miller read a letter from a former resident, who said before the program, “I was freezing and starving, living on the streets in a ditch or under a ditch.”
“The Drug Court house provided all of the things needed to survive and even allowed me to thrive,” the 2019 graduate of the program wrote to Miller. “I finally could lay in a safe place and sleep. I was finally able to shower, I used a bathroom, and I was warm.”
Beyond the basics, the former resident wrote she was around people who supported her while at the Drug Court house.
“I would not be alive if it weren’t for Drug Court,” the former resident wrote. “And I couldn’t have made it through Drug Court without the housing they provided, for me and so many others. I am forever grateful and living my best life.”
Miller said it’s unique across the state for a county to offer a house for Drug Court participants to live, though the arrangement fills a resource void in the community. Residents stay free of charge, though they must move if dismissed from the program.
“Their days are filled with stuff related to, in the beginning, getting clean and staying clean and complying with the program,” Eisenberg said. “So at least, one of the letters of support said, it was hugely important that they didn’t also have to worry about finding a place to live that was new and making rent there, because they’re getting help through the Drug Court house.”
