The Salvation Army runs a recovery program in San Francisco’s Mission District at the Joseph McFee Center.
“The Way Out Program” houses at least 50 men living in the facility, according to KTVU Fox News 2. Participants can live in the treatment center up to two years.
The “goal is to get people off the streets, into treatment where they can stabilize and heal and begin to learn how to live, ” said Steve Adami, the program’s executive director.
The Salvation Army fully funded the facility.
“I knew that I was going to have to go through a lot of pain and misery but I knew that if I could stick it out you know, there was light at the end of the tunnel,” said Joshua Brathwaite, a recovering heroin addict. The program has helped him find a way into his seventh month of sobriety.
Because of his sobriety, stability, and healing, Brathwaite learned how to live again and currently attends school at San Francisco Community College where he studies drug counseling.
“I got into heroin because, I didn’t have no drive”, “I didn’t have no purpose, I just didn’t, care, you know. It’s kind of a suicide mission,” he said.
Sticking out the recovery program taught Brathwaite to own his faults, to get a job, to save his money, to work with his peers, to share a room, and to do his laundry, noted the article.
“So if I could do it, they can do it,” said Brathwaite.
The program plans to house more than a 100 men and intends to open a space for women in summer.
