Hope Town, Portage County’s only Level 2 recovery housing facility, has a new headquarters at 9621 E. Center St. in Windham.
The headquarters, which formerly served Windham as a police and fire station, village administrative building and private medical clinic, creates what founder Ted St. John calls a “recovery campus.”
A short stroll from Hope Town’s already existing men’s and women’s houses, the newly renovated facility will house a private automobile clinic, a training institute for mechanics, meeting rooms, offices for peer support personnel and Hope Town’s administrative offices, and a dispatch center for Hope on Wheels.
“We needed more space,” St. John said. “We were running Hope on Wheels, our dispatch service, out of one office in the Renaissance Family Center. All 12 of our cars were parked at the men’s recovery house. We didn’t have a place for that service, and we couldn’t work on our own cars unless the weather was good, and then it was in the parking lot because we didn’t have a garage.”
Instead of running Hope Town and Hope on Wheels from three offices in the Renaissance Family Center, the new facility has 10 offices, eight of which are already in use, he said. Finally, Hope Town’s 27-member support team has a place to call home.
Hope Town is not a rehab facility or recovery center. Those facilities offer medical and clinical services and accept insurance payments. Level 2 recovery houses do not offer such services and are not covered by insurance.
Hope Town’s recovery housing model relies on peer support employees who have lived experience. On-site house managers hold residents accountable to individually tailored signed agreements. They also help the residents adhere to the agreements if they have fallen short.
St. John describes Hope Town’s 18-bed men’s house and a 13-bed women’s house as supportive, structured environments that help residents be more accountable to their goals. It is not housing for a person who has addiction and a housing issue, or who just needs housing.
Would-be residents can self-refer or be referred by any organization. Since the first requirement is 30 days of abstinence, typically they come from treatment centers, St. John said. Even then, admittance is not guaranteed.
“We’re looking for that willingness to do recovery things like go to meetings and get a sponsor. There’s a curfew; there’s a morning meditation. They all have to subscribe to all of it,” he said.
Residents can stay as long as they like, “provided that they are an asset to the program and continue to pursue recovery and the expectations of the program,” he said.
Those expectations include helping other residents, leading by example, staying clean and sober, completing assigned chores and two hours a week of community-based volunteer work and attending weekly meetings and recovery activities.
Should Hope Town’s recovery model prove not to be a good fit, staff members will help residents find alternative housing with more or less support. St. John estimated that the average length of stay per resident is five to six months, with some people staying a week or two and others staying a year. Residents pay $450 a month out of pocket.
Employment is encouraged and supported, but St. John understands that some people have barriers to employment or families willing to pay their rent. Hope Town staff examines each tenant’s income and ability to pay and may match residents’ financial contributions for a few months. The offer is not open-ended because “having skin in the game is important to a good outcome,” St. John said.
Residents may not have to look far for employment. Should they have the desire and aptitude, Hope Town residents may opt to staff the recently opened auto clinic, which already services Hope on Wheels cars and the rest of Hope Town’s 12-car fleet. St. John is working to secure additional service contracts, limiting would-be customers to other organizations, both non- and for-profit. Ideally, the auto clinic will be busy enough by October that St. John can hire other people who are in recovery.
The revenue will allow Hope Town to develop a workforce initiative, which will further its mission to support people with their long-term recovery goals, St. John said. He launched the enterprise, which now provides about 1,000 Medicaid-funded rides a month to people throughout the county who need transportation to medical and behavioral health appointments, in 2022.
The Portage County Mental Health and Recovery Board provides funding for nonmedical appointments, allowing Hope on Wheels to transport Hope Town residents to grocery stores, recovery meetings, probation and court appointments.
If anyone knows what the road to recovery takes, it’s St. John. He grew up in Windham, the son of a homeless, absentee father with alcohol problems he rarely saw. Though he’d been steadily using and drinking since he was 12, St. John joined the U.S. Air Force and served as a police officer from 1987-1990.
“I got into recovery when I was almost 40 years old, so I used for 27 years straight,” he said, then pointed to a date tattooed on his arm. “Feb. 20, 2009. I haven’t used anything since. I was going to kill myself, and I had a 4-year-old daughter who deserved better.”
“I knew how I felt about my dad, and I didn’t want my daughter to feel that way about me. I had to try. Without that motivation, I wouldn’t have stopped, and without that motivation I probably wouldn’t be stopped. I know that may not be enough incentive for others, but it’s plenty for me.”
He said he got clean at Glenbeigh, where he eventually gained employment as an admissions manager. He managed and directed operations at other area treatment centers, then co-founded Hope Village Recovery Center, an intensive out-patient treatment center in Rootstown.
Hope Village served people trying to beat their addictions from 2018-2023, when client and staffing shortages brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic forced its closure. Envisioning a nonprofit facility that would provide recovery housing, employment and transportation, St. John had already started Hope Town in August 2020.
“It was an area that I thought needed attention. Everybody was focusing on treatment, but honestly recovery support services is where the focus needs to be. There’s plenty of treatment options available, but successful outcomes need significant recovery support during and following treatment,” he said.
His journey continues. Determined to break another habit he’d started as a preteen, St. John quit chewing tobacco in July.
“I had to pretty much call on everything I’ve ever done to interrupt this habit. I deal with the cravings the same way I deal with the cravings to use everything else. That means a daily decision that no matter what happens today I’m not going to use, and I draw strength from my higher power. I ask God,” he said.
St. John knows how easy it is to fall back and how critical effective support is. Dedicating his energy to Hope Town keeps him at the center of his recovery journey, as does helping his daughter Zoey, now 20 and a national-level amateur bodybuilder, train to become a professional.
A public open house to view Hope Town’s new facility is set for 1 to 4 p.m. Sept. 12.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.