PROGRAM OFFERS HOME, TREATMENT TO YOUNG ADDICTS

Eight formerly addicted street kids have a home in Capitol Hill.

Their plain, 17-unit apartment house is the key part of a rare, successful
experiment in drug treatment for young addicts, said child psychiatrist
Christian Hopfer of the Addiction Research and Treatment Service, which
works with the young residents.

"We created something that didn't exist in Denver, an opportunity for
homeless youth to get treatment and housing at the same time," said Jamie
Vander Meulen, program director at Urban Peak.

Based on a University of Alabama program for middle-aged cocaine addicts,
STAR (Starting Treatment and Recovery) was launched last November. But the
idea was born two years ago with help from City Councilwoman Elbra
Wedgeworth, the Addiction Research and Treatment Service, Denver Human
Services, Denver Health Medical Center, the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division
of the state human services department, and Adam Brickner, Mayor Wellington
Webb's drug-policy adviser.

Addiction Research and Treatment gives residents two to three random drug
tests a week. If a test comes back "dirty," the offender's keys are taken
away and the person is removed from the home until two tests come back clean.

"That's the one thing I have a problem with in this program," said Jon
Horn, who has been put out twice for failing drug tests. "I don't agree
with that at all."

Recently in Horn's apartment, he and two other residents talked about their
addictions. Horn started using marijuana at age 12.

"I experimented a lot when I was 13," he said. "I used LSD for the first
time, methamphetamine for the first time, cocaine the first time, heroin
the first time."

Matt Christopher, 19, was 11 when he started using several drugs.
"Marijuana is still my favorite, but I don't touch it anymore. I don't
touch anything anymore."

Rob Kardokus, 20, who has been on his own since he was 15, moved to Denver
from Cortez to get away from the area's meth labs.

After months in Urban Peak, he had his own apartment, treatment and a new
identity: student at the Community College of Denver.

Eventually, the complex will have 16 residents.

In the meantime, the residents have become like family. Every two weeks,
they plan a menu. Urban Peak pays for food and someone, usually
Christopher, cooks.

"Mostly spaghetti; it's cheap," he said. "It's good spaghetti, though."