DON'T USE HOUSING MONEY FOR DRUG CENTERS

Gov. Ernie Fletcher recently swept the state to announce Recovery
Kentucky, a $9.5 million plan to create 10 drug and alcohol abuse
centers. No one will dispute the fact that we have a substance abuse
problem, especially in Eastern Kentucky. But I have to wonder whether
it's prudent to lose 20-plus years of building a fragile infrastructure
of affordable housing resources to treat this epidemic.

Non-profit housing developers, community groups, state and local
governments, businesses and other advocates have worked diligently to
create resources and leverage dollars to ensure that Kentucky's
working-poor and middle-income families have access to safe, decent,
affordable housing.

Now we will put all of that on hold to go statewide with a model that
seems to work well in Lexington and Louisville, but may have no
practical application in the rural parts of the state, where the
economy, geography and culture can't possibly support the program.

Some of the resources that Fletcher acknowledges are being redirected
would have gone to build houses for low-wage workers in my community
who have families and who struggle to pay for day care and food, and
get health care.

These are people who don't abuse drugs or alcohol, who might have some
other disability not of their choosing, who simply want to work and
live and contribute to the community in which they live. These are the
majority of folks in the homeless shelter in Hazard. They quietly make
their way each day and struggle for months and years to earn their
right to a mortgage and a modest home.

There is no headline to announce their plight, no champion to help
them recover from poverty and joblessness, nobody to pat them on the
back each day.

I am not opposed to drug treatment. I want my community to be healthy
and hope all addicts can find the support and strength to beat their
personal demons. And I am willing to work tirelessly to address the
issue.

I am appalled, though, that we would capitalize on this serious and
potentially detrimental epidemic by pretending we can save the state
millions of dollars while we steal the hope of thousands of
hard-working Kentucky families standing in line for the American dream.

If Fletcher really wants to help us change our direction, he should
recognize the addiction for what it is: a symptom of the disease that
plagues our state. The real disease is the hopelessness that delivers
folks to addiction. We need jobs and the transportation to get to
them. We need access to health care. We need good child care that
prepares children for school. We need schools where all children can
excel and learn. We need meaningful tax reform that creates
opportunities and accountability for all of us, not just a chosen few.

Kentucky's substance abuse problem didn't happen in a vacuum, and it
won't be cured by 10 treatment centers built by redirecting precious
and scarce resources. We can solve the problem; we just need to get
busy treating the real disease. Gerry Roll is executive director of
Hazard Perry County Community Ministries.