In the Hood: Motels Turn Into Rehabs for People Out of State.

So this morning I saw this email from a friend of mine.

“JUST SAYING- Monterrey Inn and Marina closed now too. It has become a half way house with the same owner from my understanding. It seems like a number of motels have turned into rehabs or half way houses. It must be very profitable because they’re popping up everywhere. Someone told me that Blue Heron might also be doing the same. I have not confirmed that and I’m wondering if that’s what is going to happen to Jensen Beach Waterfront Inn which is closed for remodeling but nothing seems to be happening there since it was sold.”

So very interesting and has a lot of connotations.

First of all I’m psych nurse with years of experience in adult and adolescent drug abuse and alcoholism. So I’m totally for treatment. But I have some questions.

Did these motels close down because they had to because of water being so disgusting? Is this what happened? The Economic council of Martin County and  Jensen Beach Better Business Association has totally ignored the pollution. Is the end result our friends and neighbors going out of business?

Why are these services not being offered to our own citizens who really have nothing unless they have money to pay for it?  I do know these places exist. When I worked in Ft Lauderdale we had a lot of people flown in for detox and then sent to fancy rehabs in Boca Raton.

I knew I felt this change. People shooting up in the corner store. This guy in front of me upset because he had to spend his four quarters on gas when instead he needed to buy his marijuana.  People asking for money to buy pot. I had to point out how stoned this guy was to the cashier. The time I asked the police about anything was a few years ago when these people were walking up and down the street knocking on doors during the week and peaking into windows. I found some local police at their speed trap hangout and asked them and they were not too interested in this. They totally rolled their eyes.

I just told someone last week that I thought there were a lot of addicts  around here. More than I have ever seen. Out or proportion for such a little county. Drugs everywhere.

I was told people come down from NY and New Jersey. They pay cash. Someone said that some are run by people who are still actively using. Some one else said if they fail the program they are released out to our community.

I did find this article

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2014/06/23/chris-christie-has-very-complicated-views-on-drugs/

“Christie is dealing with a full-blown crisis of heroin and prescription drug abuse in New Jersey. According to the state attorney general’s office, there were 449 overdose deaths from heroin and morphine — an opiate that heroin sometimes appears as during an autopsy — in New Jersey in 2012”

It say’s a lot people are send their children here because there is no place in New Jersey to send them.

Just in Jensen Beach

https://www.rehabs.com/local/jensen-beach-fl/

Someone else said

know someone who owns one…interesting fact ..he said the reason that there are so many in Florida now is because NY and NJ won’t accept their addicts recovering in their state..insurance won’t cover it or something ..so they send them to Florida..and my friend says only 8% of addicts stay clean..and most of the rest of them stay in Florida cause they were in a bad situation where their from and don’t want to go back..and Florida is awesome so they don’t leave..so we end up with a lot of addicts.”

( see article above. They only get so much treatment in NY. Down here they can pay in cash.)

Here are some other places that were mentioned.

Caribbean shores-female rehab
Jensen beach waterfront in
Eden lawn plantation

A place in Rio on Kubin.

My friend also said that she has been approached in the past to do the same thing with her motel.

All these people are imported from other places into out neighborhood with out any guarantee they will go home afterwards or stay here, go on Medicaid, food stamps and use our local services that our own people do not have any access to.

It takes a long time to be seen at New Horizons. If your mentally ill around here you’ve got nothing. If your bipolar and your escalating you’ve got no choices really but jail. If you have a person in a mental crisis you have a better chance of winning the lottery to get the instant care you need. I have no idea how many of these people end up in jail but I bet it’s a lot.

I have friends with a Bipolar daughter and they tell me there is no halfway houses for them. No safe place to go. No help. No support. Yet, we have people invading us from up north that get luxury accommodations because they have cash.

My friend also said

“What is really needed are housing for mentally ill women. there are no specific shelters for bi-polar women who need housing. They can’t stay in hospitals and if they are criminally inclined they don’t go to jail either. They end up homeless and victims of abuse from men and cops. I think we need more specific shelters around Jensen Beach or Stuart. just my 2 cents.” (From a parent)

If your 65 and on Medicare there is no place to go. You might be able to go to Port St Lucie hospital but in all likelihood you’ll get put on the geri unit and not get the benefit of what you need because you’ll be in a mixed unit and not necessarily  have the staff who specializes in CD.

If you want services Martin County is not the place to live. It is what it is. There are hardly any buses. I think it was Sara Heard who said “People drive their cars.” Totally unaware that there are elderly people who are literally shut ins because they cannot drive. I’ve called to make an appointment for people on MTM bus. Those people need lessons in customer service. Most of the people I know that live here are ok with that. They understand.  This is their home. But to have these services for people from out of state who their families have sent to us and don’t want back. Well, that’s a different story.

Remember when we all yelled tourism and no one listened?

Who let this happen?

Who is keeping tract of the recidivism and where these people are going?

What is the plan here?

Here is an interesting article that I found.

https://www.wbez.org/news/puerto-rico-exports-its-drug-addicts-chicago-111852

Puerto Rico exports its drug addicts to Chicago

Island police and mayors direct heroin addicts to Chicago and other cities with promises of housing and treatment.

April 10, 2015

Adriana Cardona-Maguigad

 

(Adriana Cardona-Maguigad)
Over the summer Angel and Manuel lived together in an empty house near 51st and Throop, an area where vacant homes are common.

It all started about a year ago when I began noticing more homeless men in the Chicago neighborhood where I work. Back of the Yards is a community that faces some of the city’s toughest problems: joblessness, crime, drug use.

Many of these men would be sitting in doorways or shuffling along, many times asking for money.

One day, I asked one of them: “Where are you from?” He told me a story that I later heard again and again and again.

The men told me they were  from Puerto Rico. They were addicted to heroin and they ended up in Chicago because someone in Puerto Rico drove them to the airport and put them on a plane with a one-way ticket to Chicago.

Just again to set the record straight. I’m all for treatment. But not for a few things.

  1. Literally being surrounded by treatment centers
  2. Having people come and use up our resources when we have very little without even a discussion on how to get mental health services for our citizens.
  3. The destruction of our Rio/Jensen beach motels/hotels. Just follow this ball. All these places close down and we loose a whole of rooms that can be counted so new people can come in build because they will say we don’t have enough hotels rooms. Like the guy that wants to annex the land to Stuart to build a new hotel or the people that want to build their little place on the river. Have you been to the St Lucie RIver? This past weekend I took my dog for a walk thru the nature center and had to leave because the stink was so bad.

So this is all I have right now. If anyone has any information please let me know. There is lots to talk about here and it’s conversation time.

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