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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Tue Apr 30, 2013, 05:14 AM Apr 2013

"Sober Living" is Prime Real Estate for Slumlords Exploiting Recovering Addicts

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/sober-living-prime-real-estate-slumlords-exploiting-recovering-addicts



A sober home is exactly what it sounds like. It's a place people can go when they first come out of rehab. Somewhere to live, drug- and alcohol-free. Residents take drug tests, attend 12-step meetings and have curfews to keep them on the straight and narrow.

Realtor Brian Wall says sober homes have become a lucrative business for him. A single sale can net him up to $40,000. He says the perfect sober house has lots of bedrooms, and is far away from nosy neighbors. That's because these homes can turn into overcrowded boarding houses that no one wants to live next to.

Like a rundown house I visited in the San Fernando Valley. More than 20 men live in the home, and they share just one bathroom with no door. The owner of the property refused to do an interview, but one of the residents reluctantly showed me around.

Tenants say even the garage was being used as a bedroom. There were bunkbeds to sleep a dozen men but there was no heat, running water or electricity. When I went to see for myself, the house manager demanded I leave.
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"Sober Living" is Prime Real Estate for Slumlords Exploiting Recovering Addicts (Original Post) xchrom Apr 2013 OP
Not to take away from this excellent post madokie Apr 2013 #1
... xchrom Apr 2013 #2
I went to a couple of AA meetings with someone that wanted my support Fumesucker Apr 2013 #3
like any other faith, 12 steps can be exploited zazen Apr 2013 #4
Amature "medicine" get the red out Apr 2013 #5
k/r marmar Apr 2013 #6

madokie

(51,076 posts)
1. Not to take away from this excellent post
Tue Apr 30, 2013, 05:29 AM
Apr 2013

I've managed to quit a three plus decade drinking habit and a four decade plus smoking pot habit and I still live in the same home with the same wife. Mostly different friends now mind you but I was able to do this by deciding to do it and sticking to that decision I made. No twelve steps for me. In fact the thought that was hammered into my brain for years that the only way to stop drinking was the AA way kept me from even trying. I don't want to cry in my beer or listen to someone who is crying in their beer if you get my drift.
I did not pick up other habits to do either either, no new crutches. Simply made the decision that I was going to do this and did it. I was and still am surprised at how easy it was to do once I did. 6 years ago if you would have told me that today I would be sober and straight I'd have said you are crazy as a loon but yet here I am. A testament to what one can do when they make the decision to do something.

Fumesucker

(45,851 posts)
3. I went to a couple of AA meetings with someone that wanted my support
Tue Apr 30, 2013, 05:53 AM
Apr 2013

Bo-ring was my overwhelming impression, I found out that I don't like being around a bunch of drunks even less when they are sober.

Congrats, BTW.

zazen

(2,978 posts)
4. like any other faith, 12 steps can be exploited
Tue Apr 30, 2013, 06:53 AM
Apr 2013

It is not for me or anyone else to promote the 12 steps (it violates one of the 12 traditions). However, there are ways that can be and have been implemented that are kind of like nondualism in action, and the groups can be really, really cool. Other groups can be pretty sexist and yes, racist, and some cultish, sometimes to the point of outright exploitation. (I'd say they aren't working the program as intended, anyway.) Any anywhere in between.

People often misunderstand what is meant by powerlessness and turning over one's will. It's more of a Western way of describing the fundamental Buddhist insight (well, any nondualist insight from other religions too), which is that we can control very little on this earth, and that sin, ego, Satan, Samsara, whatever, are all related to our attempts to run a universe where we are but bit players. Our egos develop biologically in an attempt to control other people, places and things (that's our human "gift," and curse). Addiction and co-addictions are just more extreme versions of the usual pathologic egoic consciousness--attempts to control the uncontrollable, which are inherently doomed to failure. Turning one's will over to a power greater than one's self is just putting into practice acceptance of the ebb and flow of life and trying to align ourselves with the most loving, positive outcomes possible out of the infinite possibilities in front of us (some of which will include a lot of loss and pain, because, well, that's life).

So the 12 steps help a lot of addicts and families of addicts. But they're a choice, and whatever way one can find to reduce self-destructive behavior (including addiction) and replace it with behavior that's more constructive for everyone involved is great.

get the red out

(13,459 posts)
5. Amature "medicine"
Tue Apr 30, 2013, 09:10 AM
Apr 2013

This is horrible. These people are not only being used, but basically led to believe that this is what they deserve for having an addiction problem, this is what they must submit to because they are “bad” and “sick”; they are being beaten down and told they have to take it for sobriety. I can’t see how this kind of learned helplessness can keep anyone sober, but I can see how it can line the pockets of the unscrupulous.

What we need in this country is professionalism in treating people with addictions. People are given over to armatures and told they need to shut up and listen to them. It’s really sad. We are so freaked out about addiction in this country that we have allowed all kinds of monstrosities be called “treatment”, because it’s just a bunch of addicts after all, not good people.

This is what we get when we care, as a nation, a lot more about war than people. No money for anything but bombs.

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