How we Work

At TLC we provide a continuum of care.

It starts from when a client walks in the door, until they move into one of our sober living units months later.

At the beginning - if they need it - we send them to a detoxification unit. Once they're sent back they undergo a three day orientation period to show them how TLC functions and what's expected of them.

Then, unless they have a job, we put them on a labor ticket until they get a week ahead on their service fees of $110 a week. It usually takes them a few weeks to get ahead. But once they're ahead a week they're free to search for a better job than working on one of our labor tickets.

While we advertise as a ninety day program, we find that those who have the most success stay longer. We have some clients who've been with us 15 years and more. Those who stay a year add to their chances of success because they've gotten into the habit of staying sober and living a normal life. They get into a routine of going to meetings and making new friends in recovery.

Those who move to our sober living apartments have an opportunity to live in the community with minimal restrictions. They're still subject to drug testing. But it's a great opportunity for them to have inexpensive housing. Something many of them can't do because they have an arrest record.

Our system works well for those who are serious about life change and living sober.

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Growing

January 13, 1992, when I was sober a year, I was living by myself in a broken down house in Mesa, Arizona. I'd bought it - and the two small houses in back of it - for no money down. All I had to pay was the $375 in closing costs.

The floors were rotting. In fact, while standing in front of the toilet, one of my feet went through the floor.

Cockroaches were everywhere - even inside the curtain rods. There was a pile of used tires sitting in the front yard, next to a broken down car. The yard was full of weeds and cactus and dead orange trees.

The roof leaked and the place needed painting. Everything was wrong with it.

Yet I couldn't have been happier. I was living in TLC's first halfway house and I was the first resident. My goal was to have the place livable and ready for occupants by March 15, 1992, a goal we reached.

I bring this up because I realized we've come a long way since 1992. With zero government funding and a lot of hard work we've grown from that one house to over 40 properties.

And I chose this as the subject today because this coming week we're adding a 19 unit apartment complex and a house to our inventory. This will allow us to increase our population to around 900.

900 beds for addicts without resources to work on their sobriety and rebuild their lives.

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Starting Over

Some days start out better than others. But yesterday wasn't one of them.

I usually start my day with meditation and exercise.

Then, whatever I'm doing, I stop to feed the dogs at exactly 6:15 a.m. And that's because at 6:30 I have to give one of the dogs, Jose, his insulin shot. The doctor said wait until 15 minutes after he eats, then give him the shot.

But yesterday morning, when I opened the bedroom door to go down and feed them, I smelled this odor. Like rotting flesh. It was so bad I almost threw up.

It didn't take long to find the source. Jose, the Chihuahua, had found a large dead bird that had been cooking in the yard all night and brought it into the house. He was on his blanket in front of the TV, busily tearing it apart and eating it.

When I told him in my big voice to give me the bird, he refused. Instead he kept eating it. And when I reach down to push him away, he nipped me on the hand. I tried it again with the same result. Now I was pissed.

I had to use more cunning. So instead of trying to take the bird, I took the blanket and rolled both him and the bird up in it. Then I took them outside and dumped them on the ground. I finally disposed of the bird and blanket. Then began getting the dead bird smell out of the house. I found that Febreze works great.

Needless to say Jose got his insulin shot late.

And I started my day over.  And while it tested my patience, at least it didn't smell bad.

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Testimonial

Once in a while I get an email like this one - written from the heart - by a TLC graduate.  I wanted to share his gratitude with you:

"Hello John..... Hoping all is well with you..

Sometimes when I am out in the community I hear negative things about Transitional Living Communities. For instance, while waiting to cross the street the other day I over heard the following conversation between two disheveled people sitting on a park bench. "You don't wanna go to TLC, f*** TLC. They wanted me get up early and work all the time... They all about the money and they got bugs."

I have also heard complaints from parents about how unfair their forty plus year old son was "treated" as a resident of TLC because he had to be up by 6 AM or earlier and that TLC didn't serve the food that their son likes to eat.

Before I made the decision in 2012 to return to TLC, the places that I lived had bugs as well. Like the two story oleander bush that I slept under on 27th Avenue and the I-17 freeway, and along the Colorado River near the Mexico/Arizona border. After a while of knowing the true feeling of being alone and exhausting all of my resources to obtain money for methamphetamines and booze, the TLC Roosevelt House started looking pretty darn good!!!!

Granted there are some people that are homeless due to extreme examples of bad luck. It is my experience that most people end up homeless and alone because of drugs and alcohol. I personally had to surrender to win. Today I live a sober and relatively happy life. TLC gave me a safe sober environment for me to have structure and suggested that I go to AA meetings and get a sponsor to help me get through the 12 steps. I was told that nobody was going to put any effort into me until I started putting some effort into myself. Therefore, I was able to start making some positive changes. I was able to realize what was wrong with me, instead of looking at what I thought was wrong with the rest of the world.

Thanks to God, Transitional Living Communities, and Alcoholics Anonymous and the people that have come before me in sobriety, I am able to live a simple and peaceful life today... Thank you for hearing me out."  (name left out to protect anonymity)

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Enabling

A woman in recovery told me an interesting story yesterday. It was about how her parents enabled her all of her life. They never wanted her to be without or suffer. And it wasn't until they both died at an advanced age that she was able to get sober.

Often I write of the dangers of enabling our children by not holding them accountable. By not allowing them to be responsible for their lives.

Many residents of TLC only came to us after everyone else was through with them - including their parents.

It's easy to understand how parents get into enabling. Many of them feel they owe their children because they weren't able to give them the best upbringing. Maybe they were poor. Or divorced. Perhaps they were addicts themselves.

In any case, they get the subconscious idea that had they raised the child differently they wouldn't have become an addict.

So when they discover the child is an addict they procrastinate. They allow them to live at home even though they know they're using.

They're afraid to give an ultimatum because they fear losing their love. Or they're afraid the child might overdose before getting help. The scenarios are endless.

I generally suggest parents tell their child they'll help them get into recovery. But if that doesn't work, then they're done. No more help. No more using the car. Or sleeping on the couch. No more handouts.

Some don't have the stomach to take this strong of a position. But I know that once my family and others quit helping me over 25 years ago it changed my life. At first I was angry. I thought they didn't love me.

Today I know how much they really did care.

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Miracle Cure?

For around 30 years I've had hepatitis C. Probably from sharing dirty needles. For many of those afflicted with this virus it can be a death sentence. It progressively destroys the liver if left untreated. Fortunately my liver has remained healthy all this time.

I bring this up after asking a halfway house client with Hep C how his treatment was going. Several months ago he said his doctor told him that his liver was getting worse. That he might need treatment. So I wondered if he'd made any progress.

When we spoke yesterday he told me that he had been on a course of treatment for, I believe, less than two months. And now, after such a short period, the virus is no longer detectable. In other words, he's cured.

I know that many of our population at TLC has Hep C. I encourage you to speak to your doctor about it. Some reports I've read show that 96% are cured within 12 weeks.  And it's something that's covered by AHCCCS, as I understand it.

Truly a miracle when a potentially fatal disease can be cured in such a short time by taking one pill a day for a few weeks.

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A Happy Life

If you're not happy you might look closer at your life.

When I was growing up, there was a philosophy many people lived by. It was go to school, get a good job, get married, own a house and a decent car. Retire with benefits and chill from then on.

Of course, those who believed that were from my parent's generation. Those who lived through the depression and World War II. And maybe some of them were happy when they acheived those goals.

I never asked them. While they were alive I was pursuing my version of happiness. Which was to  stay drunk and high for as long as I could.

And once I tired of the pain and misery I got sober and started living kind of like other people

It wasn't until later that the happiness question came up for me. I'd acquired what many consider success: happy marriage, business, friends, great income, investments, and so forth.

While these things are great, there's one thing that gives me special satisfaction. And that's giving others the opportunity to change their lives.

Every once in a while I'll be in public and someone will come up and thank me for helping them. And most of the time I don't remember them. They were at TLC years earlier. They now have a family, a good job or business.

They give us credit for their success. And I'm gracious and thank them. But the reality is that somewhere within they had a desire for a better life.

And they used our program to pull themselves up - just the way we designed it.  And that makes me happy.

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