Neighbors object to Delaware County addiction recovery home expansion

When a nonprofit for people with addiction told Haverford Township’s zoning board this spring that it hoped to expand a recovery home in a suburban neighborhood, Delaware County neighbors sounded alarms.

On social media, some shared worries that the home would become a revolving door for former drug users in a quiet, family community; others speculated that the request was just the first step in adding even more residents to the recovery home at 17 Tenby Rd. in Havertown. The large, single-family house is around the corner from the iconic Llanerch Diner.

Community member Sharon Devaney penned a blog post criticizing the proposal by Savage Sisters Recovery to increase the number of residents living there from three to eight. Devaney described the concerns aired outside March and April zoning hearings attended by dozens of residents, noting that many opposed the expansion.

“They said outside the hearing that their children play outside and fear they may be endangered,” Devaney wrote in a WordPress post which she provided to The Inquirer in lieu of a statement.

Savage Sisters knows all too well that addiction treatment can be controversial. The nonprofit already runs nine addiction recovery homes in Philadelphia, where it has recently drawn pushback from a City Council member over the group’s separate harm reduction operations — services intended to reduce the harmful effects of opioid use. The politician blamed the program for drawing people with addiction to the Kensington neighborhood. Public health advocates and harm reduction workers say the draw is the neighborhood’s entrenched, open-air drug market— and services to help them follow.

In Delaware County, Savage Sisters now faces a different challenge: outcry from suburban neighbors, including some who support addiction recovery homes in theory — just not in their backyard.

Supporters of Savage Sisters’ proposal say more residents living under one roof boosts accountability and helps vulnerable people make the transition back to sober life. They also note that the all-male home is providing a service that’s in demand in Delaware County, where 155 people died of overdose in 2022, preliminary state data show, and 197 in 2021.

Havertown resident Larry Arata, director of the Opioid Crisis Action Network nonprofit, believes his son would still be alive today if he had gotten into a high-quality recovery home closer to his family. Arata’s son, Brendan, died of an overdose in 2017.

“It’s not a city problem only, it’s a suburban problem,” Arata said of opioid addiction. “My son lived every day of his life in Havertown, and Havertown’s lost a lot of people to overdoses.”

Haverford Township residents have not yet had an opportunity to speak publicly during Savage Sisters’ ongoing zoning board hearings. But on Reddit, anonymous users speculate about potential problems when criticizing the Tenby Road expansion.

“Say bye bye to getting packages delivered, leaving recycling cans out, and if you have a dog you’ll have to be really vigilant about making sure they don’t step on discarded needles,” responded one Reddit user on a thread that questioned the proposal.

But the house is a recovery home, designed to support people who are no longer using drugs, and supporters say those fears are unfounded. The home is not a safe-injection site, which is a medically supervised facility where people can use illicit drugs as a means of preventing an overdose. In Philadelphia, efforts to open such a site, one of the nation’s first, were derailed by years of legal and political fighting.

Savage Sisters told the zoning board its stringent protocols prohibit the use of illegal substances at its recovery homes, and residents are required to take weekly drug tests. Anyone who fails those tests is immediately sent back to a rehabilitation center, according to the nonprofit.

People requesting recovery housing often decline the nonprofit’s services after learning that they do not operate homes in Delaware County suburbs such as Bryn Mawr and Radnor, said Mary Nolan, president of Savage Sisters’ board.

“Our intent is to put these people in a drug-free environment, away from the temptations of some other areas,” Nolan said.

Nolan said the nonprofit searched the county for homes that met three criteria: proximity to group meetings such as Alcoholics Anonymous, access to public transportation, and employment opportunities.

17 Tenby Rd. was “the trifecta,” she told the board.

But a Haverford zoning variance prohibits more than three unrelated people from living in the same home. In requesting a zoning ordinance exemption, Savage Sisters says the federal Fair Housing Act allows accommodations for those with disabilities — in this case, people in addiction.

A lawyer representing an unidentified Tenby Road neighbor at the zoning hearings said that “there’s no reason to have more” residents living at the home. Lawyer Jennifer Bazydlo also called it doubtful that Savage Sisters’ lease allows for expansion. Later, she questioned whether the nonprofit would keep neighborhood streets clear of residents’ cars.

“They need to show that this isn’t going to alter our community,” Bazydlo told the board.

Some community members have suggested the nonprofit move its recovery home to a nearby mixed-use commercial area, according to Savage Sisters; but the nonprofit said such an environment is not ideal for supporting recovery.

A Haverford Township spokesperson declined to comment on the hearings.

The proposal comes after Delaware County officials offered support for the group’s work in the suburbs.

The county has allocated $6.4 million for addiction treatment programs out of funds received from a landmark lawsuit against opioid painkiller manufacturers and distributors. Savage Sisters says it was encouraged to apply and was awarded a $537,000 grant that will also aid a new, all-female recovery home in Upper Darby.

“One of the leading causes of relapse is that folks leaving rehab don’t have anywhere to go.” said Adam Al-Asad, Savage Sisters’ operations director.

Sarah Laurel, executive director of Savage Sisters, blames stigma against addiction and recovery homes for the opposition to the Havertown expansion.

“I think it’s discrimination,” she said.

She noted that false rumors have spread that the group is hoping to house up to 16 residents at the Havertown property, or allow people in addiction to exchange contaminated needles for sterile ones to reduce the spread of HIV and other blood-borne diseases.

Savage Sisters is in the process of obtaining state licensing for all 11 of its recovery homes — including those in Havertown and Upper Darby — and plans to finalize state-required improvements to the Haverford home once the zoning variance is approved. (Currently, one home in South Philadelphia is licensed by the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs. The state allows only licensed recovery homes to receive referrals from state-funded addiction treatment centers.)

Laurel stressed that Savage Sisters’ housing operations are separate from its harm reduction program, such as its mobile syringe exchange services. The organization’s drop-in storefront in Kensington has also seen opposition from lawmakers in Philadelphia.

Earlier this year, Savage Sisters’ landlord declined to renew their lease at a Kensington Avenue storefront where the group had provided outreach and wound care for people in active addiction. Councilmember Quetcy Lozada had previously encouraged the landlord to drop the group’s lease, saying that Savage Sisters and Prevention Point, the largest and one of the oldest harm reduction organization in the city, were not “good neighbors.”

Services for people in recovery are essential amid an ongoing opioid crisis, Laurel said.

“Every community has to understand that the disease of addiction is real and starts within their homes,” Laurel said. “It makes sense that family members would want to come back to their home county to recover.”