The Heartview Foundation officially broke ground Wednesday for a new facility in east Bismarck that will offer sober living apartments and residential treatment beds.
Heartview purchased the building from Ruth Meiers Hospitality House for $1 million last year. The 12,000-square-foot facility was previously the men's emergency shelter, which closed in October 2017.
The new facility will increase the number of people Heartview can serve. Heartview has 13 residential treatment beds in downtown Bismarck and 16 beds in Cando. The new building will offer 16 treatment beds and 15 studio apartments.
The need for additional alcohol and drug treatment services in Bismarck-Mandan is apparent, according to Heartview Executive Director Kurt Snyder. At anytime, Heartview has 20 people on a waiting list, and they typically wait four to six weeks before they can get services.
People are also reading…
"It's really hard when people call and are told four weeks when they need it today," Snyder said Wednesday at a groundbreaking ceremony for the new facility.
Heartview launched a $1.5 million capital campaign last year and so far has raised $700,000, according to spokesman Tom Regan. The new facility is expected to open mid-December.
The project has hit some snags over the past year that led to delays in construction, including a federal law that prohibits the use of federal Medicaid funding to patients in facilities with no more than 16 beds.
Because the federal government was counting the 15 sober living apartments as treatment beds, Heartview had to get permission to proceed with the project, Snyder said.
While the residential treatment program at the new facility might not open until December, the apartments may be available sooner, as these apartments have already been renovated and will have a second entrance into the building.
The studio apartments will be prioritized for people with opioid use disorders, who often struggle to find sober living housing that allows them to continue their medication-assisted treatment, such as methadone.
"Many of our patients that we serve struggle with early recovery because they don't have a place to be. They're either homeless or they're couch-surfing or they're staying with family," Snyder said.
Also, most sober living facilities operate under the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, which prohibits the use of alcohol or drugs, including methadone, according to Snyder.
"It is discrimination. The science is clearly behind the medication, and these folks are not switching one drug for another," he said.
Snyder said residents will sign a six-month lease, and after that a housing navigator will help them find permanent housing. Rent has not yet been determined.
Once construction is complete at Heartview's east Bismarck facility, all of Heartview's residential treatment services will be moved to the new facility to make way for renovations at Heartview's downtown building.
The renovations are expected to take about two months, and once complete the 13 beds at the downtown building will be designated for women and the 16 beds at the east Bismarck facility will be for men.