Sinnissippi Centers asks Lee County to fund new recovery home

DIXON – Based on the need for another men’s sober living house in Lee County, Sinnissippi Centers is targeting the county’s opioid settlement dollars as one of its main sources of funding for the new venture.

Established in 1966, Sinnissippi provides crisis support, individual and family counseling, addiction treatment and more to individuals in Carroll, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson and Whiteside counties. It currently operates two sober-living homes: a 10-bed men’s home in Dixon, opened in 2018, and a 15-bed women’s home in Amboy, opened in 2020.

Since the men’s home open, it consistently has been filled. Recently, there’s been a consistent wait list of about 10 to 15 individuals, Tammy Stewart, Sinnissippi Centers chief clinical officer, told the Lee County Board on June 20.

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Nikola Balaban (left), 31, and Michael Johnson, 20, talk outside of the Sinnissippi Centers’ Recovery Home on Thursday, July 18, 2024. (Alex T. Paschal)

“Based on what we know about treatment for substance use disorders, when somebody is wanting treatment, you have to strike when the iron is hot. With a wait list, you lose that opportunity,” Stewart said.

Michael Johnson, a resident at the men’s home in Dixon, was kicked out of two recovery homes before coming to Sinnissippi. He kept getting into fights because he “didn’t want help,” he said in an interview with Shaw Local.

Stewart told the board that “from our current clientele, we know that a vast majority of individuals [struggling with addiction] have home environments that are not helpful in recovery.”

Nikola Balabon, another resident at the men’s home in Dixon, was “raised in addiction,” he said in an interview with Shaw Local.

Now in recovery from his own addiction, the sober-living house acts as a safe and therapeutic environment for him.

Balabon recalled one Saturday night when he earned pass time for good behavior and took the opportunity to visit his hometown of Rockford.

“I had to be back by 10 p.m.,” he said. “Coming through those doors to a clean environment with people that were sober was the weirdest feeling I’ve ever had.”

He described how he was used to the madness that he grew up in and how Saturday nights were especially unpredictable.

“[I came home] to everyone being sober just eating dinner together and joking around. I think that was my first normal experience of what life should look like,” Balabon said.

In an interview with Shaw Local, Sinnissippi President Stacie Kemp said that Sinnissippi’s first recovery home was built based on feedback from the community that people needed a “halfway point.”

Stewart said about one-third of their clients come to them directly from jail or an inpatient treatment center.

For people struggling with substance abuse it can be jarring for them to go from those types of high-level treatment facilities to living by themselves or in an unhealthy environment because “they don’t know how to live sober,” Becky Johanning, Sinnissippi director of clinical services, said in an interview with Shaw Local.

Balabon described how important it is for him to be in an environment where he has immediate access to resources when he’s struggling.

“Having [the counselors] right there next to you is a huge, huge benefit,” he said. “Sometimes it’s a short period of time, an hour throughout the day, where I’m feeling ready to talk about something.”

The goal is to teach the residents life skills so that when they leave the recovery home, they go on to be successful members of the community, Johanning said.

In the recovery homes, residents go through an intensive outpatient program. They work in groups to develop life skills such as how to do laundry, cook or stick to a budget. They also develop a substance relapse prevention plan with their counselor and have daily access to a therapist, Johanning said.

A typical day at the men’s recovery home starts at 9 a.m. with three hours of the intensive outpatient program, in which residents learn about the science behind substance abuse.

“We educate ourselves about what chemical dependency looks like and the different chemical impacts on your brain and personality,” Balabon said.

That education is one of the most important things that’s kept him sober, he said.

For Johnson, drug use began at 14 years old with pills.

“I thought I was a cool kid snorting [Xanax],” he said. “That’s so bad.”

After a month at the sober-living home, Johnson said he understands that he has a disease. He’s learning what triggers are and is “trying to become a better person,” he said.

Another resident at the men’s home, Eric Harrell, went to a couple other recovery homes before he came to Sinnissippi. He described how he was “losing hope.” He was taking his recovery very seriously but just hadn’t found a place that was a good fit for him, Harrell said.

A friend of his recommended Sinnissippi and told Harrell that the staff and quality of life there was great. He was about to give up but decided to give recovery one more shot, he said.

“I get [to Sinnissippi], and it’s been like no other,” Harrell said.

He said Sinnissippi helped him get back into school to get his degree and helped him with some health issues that have come up since he’s been living at the house.

“They really get you ready to stand on your own when you leave,” Harrell said. “I had lost hope. They give you that. They give you hope.”

At the Lee County Board meeting June 20, Johanning said that one home serves about 20 Lee County residents ages 18 and older per year, with an average length of stay between six and nine months.

“The homes are an integral part into the community,” she said. “Our clients work at the businesses within Lee County. You know Jiffy Lube, Jimmy John’s, places they can actually walk to because it’s easy access.”

Balabon, for example, was a “cotton candy man” for the carnival at the Petunia Festival earlier this month. He also works as a lifeguard and a building supervisor at the Dixon Family YMCA.

“I’ve lived all over the world, but now I’ve finally got an area that I call home,” Balabon said. “I’m building a fellowship. ... I’m actually contributing to the community.”

Lee County Board Chairman Bob Olsen said the county has hired women coming out of the recovery home in Amboy.

“It’s a great program, and it really does work,” he said.

As far as the use of opioid settlement dollars to fund the new recovery home, Olsen said “they are really restricted in what we can use them for.”

Opioid settlement funds are the result of various lawsuits that were filed against different prescription opioid distributors and manufacturers for their roles in fueling the opioid crisis in the U.S. The money paid by these companies is distributed throughout the country to be used to combat the opioid crisis, according to the Illinois Department of Human Services.

Lee County is expected to receive upward of $1 million over the course of 10 years. Currently, the county has about $67,000 in settlement funds and will have another $30,000 coming later this year, Olsen said in an interview with Shaw Local.

Each existing recovery home costs about $500,000 to $600,000 a year to operate. Most of their funding comes through a contract with the Illinois Department of Human Services’ division of Substance Use Prevention and Recovery. This contract with SUPR pays for nights of care, which means that clients don’t need to bill their insurance provider or pay out of pocket, Kemp said.

Both homes also receive about $1,000 a year from the Lee County Board of Health and about $10,000 a year from United Way.

For the new recovery home, Kemp said they are targeting the opioid settlement funds and a third contract with SUPR as its main funding sources.

As for finding a physical location for the recovery home, they are “in the exploration phase” and working with a real estate agent, Kemp said.

Both of the current homes already existed and are paid off. Kemp said it was the “right place, right time.” They are hoping for something like that again, but it all depends on timing, she said.

With Lee County as a main funding source and by targeting its residents specifically, the scope of the housing market narrows because they are looking strictly within the county, Kemp said.

Currently, they are looking at existing buildings ranging from eight to 16 bedrooms, Kemp said.

Sinnissippi also has applied for a $150,000 grant through the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, which would be used for renovations to the home. They’ll find out in September if they’ll receive that grant, Kemp said.

It’s all about piecing together multiple sources of funding, she said.

Moving forward with opening the new home will be dependent on increasing the contract with SUPR to include three homes and supplementing that funding with Lee County’s opioid settlement funds. Still, they are optimistic about getting the project rolling in the fall, Kemp said.

The Lee County Opioid Committee will meet at the end of August to discuss the possibility of awarding the funds to Sinnissippi. From there, a recommendation will be made to the board, and the decision will go through final approval.

For information, visit Sinnissippi Centers’ website at sinnissippi.org.