Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Isabel Byon (00:00):
The New York State Office of Addiction Services and
Supports, or OASAS, providesthis podcast as a public service
.
Thoughts and opinions expresseddo not necessarily represent or
reflect those of the agency orstate.
This is Addiction (00:12):
The Next Step.
Jerry Gretzinger (00:23):
Hey, there, everybody.
This is Jerry Gretzinger, yourhost for Addiction: The Next
Step, the podcast that's broughtto you by OASAS, the Office of
Addiction Services and Supportsfor the great state of New York.
So today, today's episode, youknow we really love to be able
to talk about so many differenttopics and certainly different
things that can impact thosethat we serve.
(00:44):
You know, folks who are seekingthe services of OASAS, and one
of those things that is soimportant is housing.
People need to have affordableand reliable housing, especially
those who are in treatment andthen getting into recovery, so
that they can be on their ownfeet and kind of put their lives
together in that way.
And housing is so important andoften can be a barrier to
(01:05):
someone's success.
But we do have people who arehelping to bring those barriers
down and one of those groups isConcern Housing and in the New
York City area their associateexecutive director is James
Mutton, and James joins us now.
Thanks so much for sitting downwith us today.
Jim Mutton (01:21):
Good to be here.
Jerry Gretzinger (01:21):
So, James, first let me ask you this Jim,
James, you have a preference.
Jim Mutton (01:25):
Jim is great.
Jerry Gretzinger (01:26):
Jim.
All right, Jim, that works.
So let me get into this first.
You know we talk about housingand how important that is.
If you don't mind, let's startwith the background for Concern
Housing, kind of where thisstarted, when what prompted it
to be what it is.
Jim Mutton (01:41):
So Concern Housing has actually been around for 52
years.
We started as a very grassrootsagency out in Suffolk County
there was an old statepsychiatric center out there in
Central Islip that had closeddown and a bunch of former
patients and family membersbasically got together and asked
(02:05):
themselves what do we need?
And the big issue was obviouslyhousing and we formed a
nonprofit agency.
Back then it was very smallscale you know we were renting
one and two family homes,suburban homes and it's gone on
to be a pretty huge non-profitagency that still to this day
(02:30):
focuses on providing supportivehousing, permanent supportive
housing to folks, as well asaffordable housing opportunities
to individuals and families.
So we are now all over Brooklynand the Bronx in New York City
and also NASA and Suffolk, and Iwould say we serve over over
(02:56):
1800 folks in a variety ofsettings, you know, from those
small one and two family homesto much larger buildings with
hundreds of units.
Jerry Gretzinger (03:08):
Yeah, yeah, I know I was looking at your
website and seeing some of thatinformation and it's
concernhousing.
org, right.
If anybody wants to do the samething.
I did take a look and what agreat story.
52 years ago started renting acouple of apartments to help
people out and it has reallygrown so significantly.
I know, um, one of the things Ilooked at was on Coney Island.
(03:29):
Uh, and it's, it's a wholestructure and it's got multiple
units and it's just just one ofso many
Jim Mutton (03:39):
Yeah, Coney Island was a for special project to us
back in 2019.
It was our first single siteproject with two different state
agencies.
So we work with OASAS and theOffice of Mental Health
basically to create permanenthousing.
We have 135 apartments thereand 82 of which are serving
(04:03):
formerly homeless veteransrecovering from mental health
and substance use challenges.
So folks have their own studioapartment in a building with a
kitchen and a bathroom.
We've got staff seven days aweek, 24 hours a day, there to
provide support.
(04:26):
So it's really filled a nichefor many homeless veterans who
were unnecessarily in theshelter system or on the streets
.
And alongside those we've got53 one, two and three bedroom
apartments.
So there are a variety ofhousehold sizes, families and
kids living in that building andit's transformed Coney Island.
(04:50):
I mean when we were initiallythere, there was not a lot of
development going on.
There was a lot of vacant lots,empty lands.
People were skeptical about asupportive housing program in
their neighborhood and we'vereally changed the viewpoint.
When we had our grand openingback in 2019, we had a city
(05:12):
councilman at the time came overand he admitted he was a
skeptic.
He wasn't sure he wassupportive of a project like
this, and once he saw what wewere doing, the beautiful place
to live that we're able toprovide and the voices of the
folks living there, he came outand said you know, this is the
(05:32):
model of supportive housing forNew York State.
I want every project to looklike this and to operate like
this, so it was a magical moment.
Jerry Gretzinger (05:43):
And you know what what you're saying.
There is just such a tremendouspart of this whole story
because a lot of what we want tobe able to do is to be able to
show people the good things thatare happening, the good things
we want to continue to do andand by doing that, address the
skeptics who are like well, youknow, we see a lot of NIMBYism,
right?
Well, not in my backyard, it'snot going to work here, it has
(06:03):
to be somewhere else.
But you're right, as soon aspeople see, because you know we
could talk to them, butsometimes they need to see it
with their own eyes andexperience it to really
understand it.
So it's terrific that by doingthat, you know, you were able to
show people what you had inmind and that they were
converted to going.
Yeah, you know what I can getbehind this.
That's great.
Jim Mutton (06:23):
That's it, and you know we invite anyone to come to
our sites and see the space,meet the tenants, really to hear
firsthand from the peopleliving in these buildings.
We recently opened a bagel shopin a commercial space in the
same building, so we're nowrunning a bagel business as well
(06:43):
as providing housing, and youknow a number of veterans are
working there in the shop.
It's open seven days a weekCyclone Bagels.
So if you're in Coney Island,stop by on 21st and Surf and
grab a bagel and let us knowwhat you think.
Jerry Gretzinger (06:59):
And aptly named Cyclone Bagels for Coney
Island, that's perfect.
So what I want to do do too isnow I want to get into sort of
how the connection with OASAScame about, because, you know,
I've always been working towardsthe housing end of things.
But then my understanding isthat staff were encountering
some situations where substanceuse disorder was involved and it
(07:21):
made them realize, you know, weneed to expand what we're
providing here to address thisas well.
Let me have you take that partof the story.
Jim Mutton (07:28):
Yes, so for years we've been working with folks
with mental health diagnoses,trying to get people into
recovery, back to work, you know, really reconnecting to the
communities, and we found thatwe were also serving folks with
substance use challenges.
You know that there werecomorbid issues going on and we
(07:50):
really couldn't do our job justfocusing on mental health.
We had to recognize that, youknow, recovery was holistic,
that people were at differentstages of change in their
addiction and we needed to gearup and provide those supports.
We saw a lot of challenges withthe opioid epidemic, which
(08:15):
really came fully into flow withthe COVID shutdown and the
pandemic you know we werefinding that there were a lot of
folks who were using substancesand you know, in our case it's
in their own homes.
For the most part they're intheir apartments, they're with
(08:38):
the door shut, they may be aloneand sadly we were losing people
to that epidemic.
And I have to say, you know,when we provide 24-hour staffing
in a building usually it's thatdirect care counselor, case
manager that has the unfortunatediscovery of finding somebody
(09:01):
deceased and the trauma thatcomes with that.
Right when we're talking aboutworking with folks developing
therapeutic relationships, forsome cases in years, to find
somebody dead in their apartmentof an overdose there's nothing
worse and we're taking thatvicarious trauma home with us as
(09:24):
a result.
So we realized, you know, we hadto get into a process of harm
reduction.
We had to focus on overdoseprevention.
We had to have tenants talkingto tenants about that process.
We could not do it alone asjust staff to tenants.
(09:45):
We had to involve the folks whohave lived experience there.
So we've really done a lot ofwork as an agency focusing on
what's needed, and thatobviously includes Narcan.
It includes fentanyl teststrips, people thinking about
what they're doing before theydo it not using a lone.
(10:08):
But we've also spent a lot oftime working on a curriculum
which is tenant based.
So we were involved in somestudies right now which is
focused on tenants, peerstalking to other peers about
substance use and how they canbe involved in, perhaps,
(10:28):
overdose prevention.
So you know everything fromhaving a buddy system, a safety
network, not using a lone,really checking up on people all
the time, you know, and that'smade a difference.
I have to say.
You know, we've gone fromlosing, you know, multiple
(10:49):
people in a year to virtually noone now and we're building a
system that is there for peoplethat you know, shows that
there's caring, that there'sconnection, at any time of the
day, any day of the week.
Jerry Gretzinger (11:04):
And you know I can tell you the things that
you're saying here is reallyit's music to the ears of a lot
of people in our building hereat OASAS, because you talk about
harm reduction.
You talk about, you know,peer-to-peer connections, people
with lived experience beinginvolved.
All of it's so important.
And certainly you touched onharm reduction, something that
we are so promoting right nowbecause of the difference it can
(11:25):
make.
So let's kind of put through ascenario.
If people want to know well,how does the process work?
How does somebody first makecontact with Concern?
How do they make that I don'tknow that first communication to
say I could really benefit fromthe services you provide, and
then take it a step further.
(11:46):
If it is someone with substanceuse disorder, how does that
process continue to evolve sothat they're receiving all these
things that we've just beentalking about?
Jim Mutton (11:57):
Yeah, so we may get a referral from a shelter or a
street outreach team workingwith a homeless person with
substance use challenges.
We will connect those folkswith our team on site, you know,
and we'll take a referral,typically through the city's
(12:17):
Human Resources Administration.
They have a single point ofaccess now for referrals.
But we're also meeting peoplein the community.
You know we'll meet neighbors,we'll meet community members at
community board meetings andthey'll say you know, I've got
somebody sleeping on my doorstep.
You know what can you do?
(12:38):
Or I know a veteran who hasbeen, you know, just on the
beach on the boardwalk for aperiod of time.
So we'll get out there andwe'll engage folks ourselves.
We'll do our own outreach ifnecessary, connect people to the
right resources.
The minute that we can getsomeone to set a foot in the
(12:59):
door and possibly be on thejourney to permanent supportive
housing.
We've made that breakthrough andyou know it starts at intake,
it starts with that outreach andthat relationship building.
But the point that we're givingpeople a key and a lease to
(13:20):
their own apartment, to me thatis the most humbling part of our
work.
You know.
I like to say it's the day Isee grown men cry when I give
them the keys to their apartment.
And you know we have a teamthat is there for them 24 hours
a day, seven days a week, sothat that discussion is
happening when they're ready,whenever they want to have that
(13:45):
conversation.
And you know it could besomething as simple as a safety
plan.
You know I'm worried aboutrelapse.
What do I do if I get thoseurges to use?
Who do I call, who do I talk to?
Or if I am using, how I can dothat safely and avoid a tragedy?
(14:06):
You know, reduce harm yeah.
Yeah, and going back to what wetalked about with peers in the
building, you know it'stypically getting people
connected to other tenantswho've had that lived experience
, who can help orientate peopleto the community, that can show
(14:27):
them the ropes, that can, youknow, be available to people at
all hours of the day.
You know that job is 90%listening right.
It's giving somebody a warm andempathetic ear to allow them to
feel heard, perhaps for thefirst time in many years.
(14:48):
That's the breakthrough, Ithink.
Jerry Gretzinger (14:50):
And you know you talk about seeing a grown
person cry when you hand overthe keys.
I think you know we allobviously know how important
housing is and we hear so muchmore of it now and you know
OASAS is doing as much as it canto kind of provide, you know,
recovery housing and housing forpeople to be able to kind of
get back on their feet.
But I think, like you said,when somebody has that roof over
(15:12):
their head and they have aplace to call home, you give
them the keys but it gives themhope and I think that's
something that just makes themrealize okay, I can do this,
I've got the tools and thesupport system that you
obviously are building aroundthem to make them successful.
Jim Mutton (15:27):
That's right and you know, I think that the housing
sector has done a lot of work tobridge those gaps with the
treatment community.
Right, these are novel programs.
I mean, the Surf Hats PlaceVeterans Program was the first
of its kind in New York City tobe a ground-up project.
(15:47):
You know where it's a typicalapartment building, right, where
we've got supportive housing,affordable housing, families and
kids, working folks all livingunder one roof.
It's like well, how can webring the treatment supports to
that community?
So we spent a lot of time, youknow, reaching out to those
(16:07):
clinics, those Article 31clinics, those harm reduction
programs in the community, tosay, hey, you know, we've got an
opportunity here to partnerwith you and bring your services
to us as well as, obviously,provide housing to anyone that
you feel may be in need.
Jerry Gretzinger (16:28):
Well, Jim, I mean, I think what you're doing
is tremendous, and I just wantto say you talked about the
lawmaker who was at that ribboncutting and said this is the
model.
I'm totally behind this now andI hope others will hear this,
will hear about how this worksand that it will be a model for
other programs People can follow.
Provide this throughout thestate of New York, because
certainly housing is a needeverywhere and you know people
(16:50):
with substance use disorder orany other needs, whether they be
mental health or substance use.
Housing is so critical.
So we completely applaud whatyou're doing, what you've been
doing, and thank you so much forsitting down with us today to
give us some background on it.
And now I hope that you'll alsolet people know where can they
find it?
We talked about the web address.
Is that the perfect place tostart?
Jim Mutton (17:12):
Absolutely.
A great place to goconcernhousing.
org and you can see all of ourprograms there, learn all about
our services.
You can apply for housing there.
You can apply for employment.
It's a one-stop shop.
So concernhousing.
org is our website and feel freeto to connect with me there.
(17:36):
You know all of our contactinformation is available at that
site.
Jerry Gretzinger (17:41):
Great.
Jim.
Thanks so much for sitting downwith us today.
Jim Mutton (17:44):
My pleasure, Jerry,
Jerry Gretzinger (17:45):
And, listen, if you're looking for other
services or supports that youthink could be helpful to you,
that OASAS could help connectyou with you know how to find us
.
It's our website, oasas.
ny.
gov, o-a-s-a-s, dot N-Y, dotG-O-V.
And, of course, don't forgetour Hope Line, 877-8-HOPE-N-Y.
There's people there to talkwith you, regardless of the need
, about addiction, whether itssubstance use or problem
(18:06):
gambling 24/7.
Give them a call, get online.
We're here to help.
And we're here Every Step ofThe Way at OASAS the Office of
Addiction Services and Supports.
I'm your host Jerry Gretzinger.
Thanks for joining us and untilnext time, be well.
The New York State Office of Addiction Services and
Supports, or OASAS, providesthis podcast as a public service
.
Thoughts and opinions expresseddo not necessarily represent or
reflect those of the agency orstate.
This is Addiction (00:12):
The Next Step.
Jerry Gretzinger (00:23):
Hey, there, everybody.
This is Jerry Gretzinger, yourhost for Addiction: The Next
Step, the podcast that's broughtto you by OASAS, the Office of
Addiction Services and Supportsfor the great state of New York.
So today, today's episode, youknow we really love to be able
to talk about so many differenttopics and certainly different
things that can impact thosethat we serve.
(00:44):
You know, folks who are seekingthe services of OASAS, and one
of those things that is soimportant is housing.
People need to have affordableand reliable housing, especially
those who are in treatment andthen getting into recovery, so
that they can be on their ownfeet and kind of put their lives
together in that way.
And housing is so important andoften can be a barrier to
(01:05):
someone's success.
But we do have people who arehelping to bring those barriers
down and one of those groups isConcern Housing and in the New
York City area their associateexecutive director is James
Mutton, and James joins us now.
Thanks so much for sitting downwith us today.
Jim Mutton (01:21):
Good to be here.
Jerry Gretzinger (01:21):
So, James, first let me ask you this Jim,
James, you have a preference.
Jim Mutton (01:25):
Jim is great.
Jerry Gretzinger (01:26):
Jim.
All right, Jim, that works.
So let me get into this first.
You know we talk about housingand how important that is.
If you don't mind, let's startwith the background for Concern
Housing, kind of where thisstarted, when what prompted it
to be what it is.
Jim Mutton (01:41):
So Concern Housing has actually been around for 52
years.
We started as a very grassrootsagency out in Suffolk County
there was an old statepsychiatric center out there in
Central Islip that had closeddown and a bunch of former
patients and family membersbasically got together and asked
(02:05):
themselves what do we need?
And the big issue was obviouslyhousing and we formed a
nonprofit agency.
Back then it was very smallscale you know we were renting
one and two family homes,suburban homes and it's gone on
to be a pretty huge non-profitagency that still to this day
(02:30):
focuses on providing supportivehousing, permanent supportive
housing to folks, as well asaffordable housing opportunities
to individuals and families.
So we are now all over Brooklynand the Bronx in New York City
and also NASA and Suffolk, and Iwould say we serve over over
(02:56):
1800 folks in a variety ofsettings, you know, from those
small one and two family homesto much larger buildings with
hundreds of units.
Jerry Gretzinger (03:08):
Yeah, yeah, I know I was looking at your
website and seeing some of thatinformation and it's
concernhousing.
org, right.
If anybody wants to do the samething.
I did take a look and what agreat story.
52 years ago started renting acouple of apartments to help
people out and it has reallygrown so significantly.
I know, um, one of the things Ilooked at was on Coney Island.
(03:29):
Uh, and it's, it's a wholestructure and it's got multiple
units and it's just just one ofso many
Jim Mutton (03:39):
Yeah, Coney Island was a for special project to us
back in 2019.
It was our first single siteproject with two different state
agencies.
So we work with OASAS and theOffice of Mental Health
basically to create permanenthousing.
We have 135 apartments thereand 82 of which are serving
(04:03):
formerly homeless veteransrecovering from mental health
and substance use challenges.
So folks have their own studioapartment in a building with a
kitchen and a bathroom.
We've got staff seven days aweek, 24 hours a day, there to
provide support.
(04:26):
So it's really filled a nichefor many homeless veterans who
were unnecessarily in theshelter system or on the streets
.
And alongside those we've got53 one, two and three bedroom
apartments.
So there are a variety ofhousehold sizes, families and
kids living in that building andit's transformed Coney Island.
(04:50):
I mean when we were initiallythere, there was not a lot of
development going on.
There was a lot of vacant lots,empty lands.
People were skeptical about asupportive housing program in
their neighborhood and we'vereally changed the viewpoint.
When we had our grand openingback in 2019, we had a city
(05:12):
councilman at the time came overand he admitted he was a
skeptic.
He wasn't sure he wassupportive of a project like
this, and once he saw what wewere doing, the beautiful place
to live that we're able toprovide and the voices of the
folks living there, he came outand said you know, this is the
(05:32):
model of supportive housing forNew York State.
I want every project to looklike this and to operate like
this, so it was a magical moment.
Jerry Gretzinger (05:43):
And you know what what you're saying.
There is just such a tremendouspart of this whole story
because a lot of what we want tobe able to do is to be able to
show people the good things thatare happening, the good things
we want to continue to do andand by doing that, address the
skeptics who are like well, youknow, we see a lot of NIMBYism,
right?
Well, not in my backyard, it'snot going to work here, it has
(06:03):
to be somewhere else.
But you're right, as soon aspeople see, because you know we
could talk to them, butsometimes they need to see it
with their own eyes andexperience it to really
understand it.
So it's terrific that by doingthat, you know, you were able to
show people what you had inmind and that they were
converted to going.
Yeah, you know what I can getbehind this.
That's great.
Jim Mutton (06:23):
That's it, and you know we invite anyone to come to
our sites and see the space,meet the tenants, really to hear
firsthand from the peopleliving in these buildings.
We recently opened a bagel shopin a commercial space in the
same building, so we're nowrunning a bagel business as well
(06:43):
as providing housing, and youknow a number of veterans are
working there in the shop.
It's open seven days a weekCyclone Bagels.
So if you're in Coney Island,stop by on 21st and Surf and
grab a bagel and let us knowwhat you think.
Jerry Gretzinger (06:59):
And aptly named Cyclone Bagels for Coney
Island, that's perfect.
So what I want to do do too isnow I want to get into sort of
how the connection with OASAScame about, because, you know,
I've always been working towardsthe housing end of things.
But then my understanding isthat staff were encountering
some situations where substanceuse disorder was involved and it
(07:21):
made them realize, you know, weneed to expand what we're
providing here to address thisas well.
Let me have you take that partof the story.
Jim Mutton (07:28):
Yes, so for years we've been working with folks
with mental health diagnoses,trying to get people into
recovery, back to work, you know, really reconnecting to the
communities, and we found thatwe were also serving folks with
substance use challenges.
You know that there werecomorbid issues going on and we
(07:50):
really couldn't do our job justfocusing on mental health.
We had to recognize that, youknow, recovery was holistic,
that people were at differentstages of change in their
addiction and we needed to gearup and provide those supports.
We saw a lot of challenges withthe opioid epidemic, which
(08:15):
really came fully into flow withthe COVID shutdown and the
pandemic you know we werefinding that there were a lot of
folks who were using substancesand you know, in our case it's
in their own homes.
For the most part they're intheir apartments, they're with
(08:38):
the door shut, they may be aloneand sadly we were losing people
to that epidemic.
And I have to say, you know,when we provide 24-hour staffing
in a building usually it's thatdirect care counselor, case
manager that has the unfortunatediscovery of finding somebody
(09:01):
deceased and the trauma thatcomes with that.
Right when we're talking aboutworking with folks developing
therapeutic relationships, forsome cases in years, to find
somebody dead in their apartmentof an overdose there's nothing
worse and we're taking thatvicarious trauma home with us as
(09:24):
a result.
So we realized, you know, we hadto get into a process of harm
reduction.
We had to focus on overdoseprevention.
We had to have tenants talkingto tenants about that process.
We could not do it alone asjust staff to tenants.
(09:45):
We had to involve the folks whohave lived experience there.
So we've really done a lot ofwork as an agency focusing on
what's needed, and thatobviously includes Narcan.
It includes fentanyl teststrips, people thinking about
what they're doing before theydo it not using a lone.
(10:08):
But we've also spent a lot oftime working on a curriculum
which is tenant based.
So we were involved in somestudies right now which is
focused on tenants, peerstalking to other peers about
substance use and how they canbe involved in, perhaps,
(10:28):
overdose prevention.
So you know everything fromhaving a buddy system, a safety
network, not using a lone,really checking up on people all
the time, you know, and that'smade a difference.
I have to say.
You know, we've gone fromlosing, you know, multiple
(10:49):
people in a year to virtually noone now and we're building a
system that is there for peoplethat you know, shows that
there's caring, that there'sconnection, at any time of the
day, any day of the week.
Jerry Gretzinger (11:04):
And you know I can tell you the things that
you're saying here is reallyit's music to the ears of a lot
of people in our building hereat OASAS, because you talk about
harm reduction.
You talk about, you know,peer-to-peer connections, people
with lived experience beinginvolved.
All of it's so important.
And certainly you touched onharm reduction, something that
we are so promoting right nowbecause of the difference it can
(11:25):
make.
So let's kind of put through ascenario.
If people want to know well,how does the process work?
How does somebody first makecontact with Concern?
How do they make that I don'tknow that first communication to
say I could really benefit fromthe services you provide, and
then take it a step further.
(11:46):
If it is someone with substanceuse disorder, how does that
process continue to evolve sothat they're receiving all these
things that we've just beentalking about?
Jim Mutton (11:57):
Yeah, so we may get a referral from a shelter or a
street outreach team workingwith a homeless person with
substance use challenges.
We will connect those folkswith our team on site, you know,
and we'll take a referral,typically through the city's
(12:17):
Human Resources Administration.
They have a single point ofaccess now for referrals.
But we're also meeting peoplein the community.
You know we'll meet neighbors,we'll meet community members at
community board meetings andthey'll say you know, I've got
somebody sleeping on my doorstep.
You know what can you do?
(12:38):
Or I know a veteran who hasbeen, you know, just on the
beach on the boardwalk for aperiod of time.
So we'll get out there andwe'll engage folks ourselves.
We'll do our own outreach ifnecessary, connect people to the
right resources.
The minute that we can getsomeone to set a foot in the
(12:59):
door and possibly be on thejourney to permanent supportive
housing.
We've made that breakthrough andyou know it starts at intake,
it starts with that outreach andthat relationship building.
But the point that we're givingpeople a key and a lease to
(13:20):
their own apartment, to me thatis the most humbling part of our
work.
You know.
I like to say it's the day Isee grown men cry when I give
them the keys to their apartment.
And you know we have a teamthat is there for them 24 hours
a day, seven days a week, sothat that discussion is
happening when they're ready,whenever they want to have that
(13:45):
conversation.
And you know it could besomething as simple as a safety
plan.
You know I'm worried aboutrelapse.
What do I do if I get thoseurges to use?
Who do I call, who do I talk to?
Or if I am using, how I can dothat safely and avoid a tragedy?
(14:06):
You know, reduce harm yeah.
Yeah, and going back to what wetalked about with peers in the
building, you know it'stypically getting people
connected to other tenantswho've had that lived experience
, who can help orientate peopleto the community, that can show
(14:27):
them the ropes, that can, youknow, be available to people at
all hours of the day.
You know that job is 90%listening right.
It's giving somebody a warm andempathetic ear to allow them to
feel heard, perhaps for thefirst time in many years.
(14:48):
That's the breakthrough, Ithink.
Jerry Gretzinger (14:50):
And you know you talk about seeing a grown
person cry when you hand overthe keys.
I think you know we allobviously know how important
housing is and we hear so muchmore of it now and you know
OASAS is doing as much as it canto kind of provide, you know,
recovery housing and housing forpeople to be able to kind of
get back on their feet.
But I think, like you said,when somebody has that roof over
(15:12):
their head and they have aplace to call home, you give
them the keys but it gives themhope and I think that's
something that just makes themrealize okay, I can do this,
I've got the tools and thesupport system that you
obviously are building aroundthem to make them successful.
Jim Mutton (15:27):
That's right and you know, I think that the housing
sector has done a lot of work tobridge those gaps with the
treatment community.
Right, these are novel programs.
I mean, the Surf Hats PlaceVeterans Program was the first
of its kind in New York City tobe a ground-up project.
(15:47):
You know where it's a typicalapartment building, right, where
we've got supportive housing,affordable housing, families and
kids, working folks all livingunder one roof.
It's like well, how can webring the treatment supports to
that community?
So we spent a lot of time, youknow, reaching out to those
(16:07):
clinics, those Article 31clinics, those harm reduction
programs in the community, tosay, hey, you know, we've got an
opportunity here to partnerwith you and bring your services
to us as well as, obviously,provide housing to anyone that
you feel may be in need.
Jerry Gretzinger (16:28):
Well, Jim, I mean, I think what you're doing
is tremendous, and I just wantto say you talked about the
lawmaker who was at that ribboncutting and said this is the
model.
I'm totally behind this now andI hope others will hear this,
will hear about how this worksand that it will be a model for
other programs People can follow.
Provide this throughout thestate of New York, because
certainly housing is a needeverywhere and you know people
(16:50):
with substance use disorder orany other needs, whether they be
mental health or substance use.
Housing is so critical.
So we completely applaud whatyou're doing, what you've been
doing, and thank you so much forsitting down with us today to
give us some background on it.
And now I hope that you'll alsolet people know where can they
find it?
We talked about the web address.
Is that the perfect place tostart?
Jim Mutton (17:12):
Absolutely.
A great place to goconcernhousing.
org and you can see all of ourprograms there, learn all about
our services.
You can apply for housing there.
You can apply for employment.
It's a one-stop shop.
So concernhousing.
org is our website and feel freeto to connect with me there.
(17:36):
You know all of our contactinformation is available at that
site.
Jerry Gretzinger (17:41):
Great.
Jim.
Thanks so much for sitting downwith us today.
Jim Mutton (17:44):
My pleasure, Jerry,
Jerry Gretzinger (17:45):
And, listen, if you're looking for other
services or supports that youthink could be helpful to you,
that OASAS could help connectyou with you know how to find us
.
It's our website, oasas.
ny.
gov, o-a-s-a-s, dot N-Y, dotG-O-V.
And, of course, don't forgetour Hope Line, 877-8-HOPE-N-Y.
There's people there to talkwith you, regardless of the need
, about addiction, whether itssubstance use or problem
(18:06):
gambling 24/7.
Give them a call, get online.
We're here to help.
And we're here Every Step ofThe Way at OASAS the Office of
Addiction Services and Supports.
I'm your host Jerry Gretzinger.
Thanks for joining us and untilnext time, be well.
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