Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Wendy Harrison (Chair)]: Hi,

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: Good afternoon.

[Wendy Harrison (Chair)]: This is Senate institutions. Today is Thursday, 02/05/2026. And we will be looking at two items today. There's first a capital budget adjustment for Recovery House. And then we'll be looking again at capital budgets section 14. This is the proposed capital budget, which is judiciary. So we have with us Chad Boucher, Executive Director of Recovery House. And Chad, would you like to come sit and I don't know if you have met all of us? We don't. Okay, so I'm Wendy Harrison and I represent the Windham District.

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: And I'm Rob Lunkett, Bennington District. Joe Major Windsor, and Russ Ingalls Assets District.

[Wendy Harrison (Chair)]: And then our other, member is not able to be here today. But I think you were here maybe two years ago or? I

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: think it was about that, two or three years ago. Yeah. So

[Wendy Harrison (Chair)]: if you could just identify yourself for the record and then just let us know about what Recovery House does and why you're coming here to us.

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: Absolutely. Thank you. My name is Chad Najeeh. I am the executive director for Recovery Housing. Despite our name, we don't quite do recovery housing. I'll get into what we do do, but we specialize in residential substance use treatment, and I am here today to talk about a proposal for capital budget adjustment. Thank you, Madam Chair, senators, for having me here today. So Recovery House Inc. Is a residential substance mistreatment provider that has been operating since 1972. We are located in Wallingford and we serve every corner of the state. We are specialized in that we're a full state provider, whereas traditionally outpatient substance use providers are regional and specific to area. Within our umbrella of Recovery House, we offer a few different levels of care. The highest level of care that we offer is known as Serenity House. That's our oldest stand in program in Walnut Creek. We offer medical detoxification, withdrawal management at that location. It is a high intensity program and it is short in duration based on the individual's need for those services. We're very fortunate, in addition to that, we operate a lower level of care, two of them actually, in a clinically managed setting. Both houses located physically in Rutland City. We offer a program that is designed for three months, but oftentimes folks are staying longer. It really depends on their clinical need. The newest program that we have designed and brought online is the Bee House, and that is one of those low intensity clinically managed programs, and that was brought online November 2024. So we're seeing some really, really good connections, specifically the connection between our highest level of care, that intermediary step down program at Grace House or Normandy House, and then the next step for the individual. Oftentimes that next step includes intensive outpatient combined with a recovery residence, or recovery house, or a sober house. But those recovery residences are really a key partner for us as we transition people out of our services and into the community we want people to turn into. As I said, for fifty years, have put clients first, and unfortunately that means we've put some facilities projects on the back burner, and every once in a while, one will remind us that they still need attention, and part of my request is looking to address those needs. Not only are we 50 years old and programmed, but our buildings themselves are far older than us. Our oldest building is Serenity House, and that was originally a free marine built in the late 1800s. So as you can imagine, a building from the late 1800s had some late 1800s issues. We are a nonprofit organization, just to give you some information on how we're funded, nonprofit, private organization that is 98% funded by Medicaid state and federal grants. One of our largest operating grants is the block grant coming from Samsung, federal government. But about 55% of our funding is Medicaid. So we are working with narrow margins and whatever margins we do have, we're putting into direct service. Think our last fiscal audit put us at about a 90% dollar to direct care rate, which is fantastic. It's now time to invest in the infrastructure so we can continue on with another fifty years of service. With that, I have identified number of projects that may take us many years to complete if we were to say maybe fifty, I hope not, but my proposal is for 220,000, and with that, we'll be able to address some roofing issues. We have slate roofs, which are beautiful when there are issues with them. They tend to cost us a night. We have often run into power issues, for example, especially being where we're located in Vermont, and we don't have a generator, So when an outage, I'm often driving down, hooking up a residential generator and trying to get power to the building. Improving on generator power, improving on projects such as roof weatherization, needing new siding, new windows is a part of that as well, and some structural repairs that have increased our costs with heating. Our attic is in rough shape, the slate roof, for example. I feel that if we don't address these sooner rather than later, they will cost us more down the road. So I really wanna tackle these projects. I can't do it alone, so I've come to you asking for this request.

[Wendy Harrison (Chair)]: Okay. Yes.

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: Alright. Do you have any monies in the BAA or any part of the capital grant or anything? Has anybody said that they were willing to give you money or this is just you coming to us asking for 220,000? Has anybody nodded their head?

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: No. Okay. This is me coming to this committee and asking. Okay.

[Wendy Harrison (Chair)]: So there's not a line item.

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: Go

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: ahead. And you had mentioned that you received some state grants. What are they? You can tell, I know you

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: don't have a problem. So all

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: of our grants are managed by the Department of Health Division of Substitutes. They include the law grant through SAMHSA. It includes a grant for public inebriate programming, which is one of the programs that we do offer out of our Grace House location, so we're serving that public safety. I'm sorry to interrupt, but that's funds that come from the federal government that are, is there any just state money? So state money, we have an outreach and engagement grant that the state has provided us, and we've entered into a grant agreement with virtual hip screening and that may be We've not. State. What was the last one? The virtual public inebriate screening. Oh, okay.

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: Oh, interesting.

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: And the other grant you mentioned, what agency does that one? Is it the Department

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: of Health?

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: That was the Department of Health. How

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: many people are in a year at given week? Yeah, you're right.

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: Any given week, we have 35, 45, roughly. If we

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: your longest stay is how long?

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: At Serenity House, our longest stay is sixty days, and at our lower levels of care, believe our longest stay is about one hundred and twenty days. And lowest level means are

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: they physically in the facility? I hate to say locked down, but are they free to come and go? Are they there going to work and coming and having support, what's that one hundred and twenty days look like?

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: So that one hundred and twenty days at both our Magee House and Grace House facilities is divided into certain phase systems, and during those phase systems, there are opportunities for free time in the community. Now, when someone enters, we give them the opportunity to go out and connect with resources. We'd like for them to connect with primary care, with dental, with mental health. We'd like for them to connect with the DMV and perhaps get their license back. And as they progress into phase two and into phase three, looking for employment or volunteer work, because the other side of that is either going to a recovery residence or going to an individual residence where they would have to sustain themselves.

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: Are these people with one hundred and twenty days? Just trying to get a sense of it. I'm in this world a little bit. I don't want

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: to use the old words

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: of past. Think there's better words to use. Are they the one hundred and twenty day folks have they've already been into recovery and they're trying to stay sober? Or are they still, you know, not that they all don't struggle, but where are they in their process?

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: So oftentimes the folks in our lower levels of care are coming to us from either Serenity House or Palmy Vista or a hospital. Sometimes we do take folks from a self referral in the community, but generally speaking, they are more stable than the folks needed higher levels. Correct.

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: And you do the higher levels of care. You do the interdictions where they're confined until they're better. That would be like the sixty days? After sixty days?

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: So up to whenever it's medically and clinically appropriate for that person. Or approved. The approval process is in our hands. Okay, well, not the money part though. So the money is Medicaid reimbursed on an episodic rate, and so once we decide as the provider that someone's appropriate to come in, we look at that person and say, okay, how much time does this person need? And sometimes folks look like it's gonna be two weeks and then we decide, gee, they need more.

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: Right, so you have that flexibility and Medicare is willing to have that flexibility with you.

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: Medicaid gives us flexibility. Unfortunately

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: Medicare does not have that. No, it's not that. It's medicinal.

[Wendy Harrison (Chair)]: All right, that's a good question. You. So did you have one?

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: I do have one, okay. I think you said it was 30 or 40 folks in serenity at any given time. Across our levels of care. Across the levels of care, okay. So in serenity at any given time, how many might you Lately, we've been ranging from 17 to 24. Okay. It really ebbs and flows. Our license is for 34 beds. Workforce has made it very difficult. Our capacity and still remaining of quality service is probably around 25.6 people at any given time that's around the house. And of those, what's the percentage that comes through the courts, or possibly DOC? So we're estimating about fifty percent of justices involved.

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: Are you are you seeing more of the people who are affected with alcohol or opioids or or in a I don't know which side, which is the biggest. And I know that doesn't have anything to do with this. It's just more for my brain and just to wrap myself around it.

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: So kind of an interesting transition. I started in the field where it was mostly alcohol.

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: Right.

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: And then the opiates came in and it was a very sudden shift. Now it is almost a three slice pie with alcohol, opiates, cocaine.

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: Oh, cocaine.

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: That all being equal share as a primary substance.

[Wendy Harrison (Chair)]: That's interesting. I heard that in other committees. So, with the opioid situation, my understanding is that we seem to be past the peak, but I mean, obviously there's still a lot happening, but I think we are, is that your experience, is that your knowledge that we're past the peak?

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: I would hope so, I would hope so. You know, I think we hit a peak in the 90s in the nation at some point, and then the peak got higher after 2014, and certainly higher with the introduction of fentanyl too, So it's straight to you. I'd like to think that we're over that. We've done an amazing job responding in the treatment world, the recovery world, the prevention, harm reduction world, for sure. I see a lot of folks who are, and I don't have a number on this, but anecdotally I see a lot of folks who are being treated for maybe opiates or alcohol, and they're abstaining from those substances, but then cocaine is in their life still, and so it's there and perhaps the primary diagnosis may be opioid use disorder, but cocaine just lingers.

[Wendy Harrison (Chair)]: Wow, and it's different type of job, too.

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: Go ahead. And your staffing levels, how much staff and are you at full capacity? So our staffing levels are augmented by travel staff, unfortunately. In 2022, we needed to start using travelers. We did pretty well through the height of COVID. We went all the way up to 10 travelers, now we're down to about three, but on a 20 fourseven basis between nursing and direct support staff and administrative staff, we're in really good shape. Where we do have a need is clinical staff, our counselors, and that's an area that I've been speaking to some other legislators about, the workforce, how do we get people into wanting to be a counselor? There's some opportunities, but we really lost an incredible asset when the College of St. Joseph closed down. The central and southern part of the state don't have that feeder system with a master's level counseling program, so trying to get the clinical piece there because that's the key to quality care, and we can consistently have those higher numbers when we have that piece.

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: The 220,000 is how you make you whole, or is that just, just in the bare minimum of what you need to get done?

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: 220,000 is gonna, take care of, I don't have the number, but most of our capital improvement projects, and the ones that are, I guess, more urgent. Okay. And one last question. Sorry.

[Wendy Harrison (Chair)]: No. Go. No. This is good.

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: Your your estimates of your 220,000, is it something what how did that one number where did you get that number from?

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: We, so, we set out to repair roof, not this year, but the year before. I've taken that quote into consideration. I've gotten some other quotes on other projects, talking with local contractors as well to see what would be the fall part for this project or that project.

[Wendy Harrison (Chair)]: That's great, and I have a similar question which is can you detail more of this for us? Yes. Just send us more of a detail sheet? Absolutely. And I suspect that the House committee would like that also. But I'm hearing general support.

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: I would write you the check today.

[Wendy Harrison (Chair)]: Yeah, would Well

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: that be

[Wendy Harrison (Chair)]: would be the backup.

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: Where are we gonna find them?

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: Because this is, these these programs are absolutely crucial.

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: Yeah. So, you know, I I'm a prosecutor down in Bennington, so a lot

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: of folks are coming through your systems, it's absolutely crucial. I and I helped, instrumental in putting Ben's house in dirty, and I'm involved in trying to recover in a demo. Yeah. So, again, yeah.

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: Very important. Having Ben's house in Newport is Yeah.

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: A huge success. We just gotta find some money. Right?

[Wendy Harrison (Chair)]: And we can talk about it more next week because there's a recovery day next week, and so we'll have some people coming in about so we can talk about this again. So actually, if you would have the detail by then, that would be really helpful.

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: Yeah, it'd be very helpful for you to get that to us. As we said in our morning committee, the doors are shut yet, but we can see it closing. Yeah.

[Wendy Harrison (Chair)]: You're good.

[Robert Plunkett (Vice Chair)]: Yep.

[Wendy Harrison (Chair)]: Excellent. Well, thank you for your work. Thank you. Thank you so much.

[Chad Najeeh (Executive Director, Recovery House, Inc.)]: Yeah. Thank you. Good afternoon again. Absolutely.

[Wendy Harrison (Chair)]: Okay, our next group is at two. Let us have a five minute adjournment.