Recovery home for alcoholics needs help

Ron, a 60-year-old alcoholic, is on his second stay in 10 years at Samaritan House, the oldest recovery home for male alcoholics in Las Vegas.

"I was losing my apartment, my lady, and I would have been homeless," he said Friday while taking a break from chores around the house.

Much like Ron and the 40 other men who live there, the Samaritan House has recently fallen on hard times.

The home, which opened in 1965 on Fourth Street near Washington Avenue, strives to be self-sufficient.

It charges those who can afford to pay $100 a week and makes up any gaps in funding almost entirely in donations.

But recent costly renovations to make the home handicapped-accessible and a loss of some funding this year have left the nonprofit in the red.

"Our feet are to the fire," said Keith Thomas, vice chairman of Samaritan House's board of directors.

The nonprofit needs between $17,000 and $18,000 a month to operate, and is desperate to raise at least $10,000 within the next couple of months to make ends meet and avoid possible closure.

To that end, Samaritan House has organized two fundraisers for later this month: a golf tournament and a comedy show that will feature local comedian George Wallace and others.

Homeless outreach workers, social service providers and agencies that focus on substance abuse treatment, such as WestCare, refer men to Samaritan House. There is usually a waiting list.

Most of the men who live in the home have no health insurance and are otherwise destitute. They are housed several per room and must do daily chores and get jobs as soon as possible to help pay toward their expenses at Samaritan House.

The house itself is spacious, clean and comfortable. Walls are decorated with simple slogans such as "No excuses" and "Show up."

The dozen or so men who weren't working Friday morning were doing chores: sweeping the front and back porches or cleaning the house. Others sat smoking in the front yard.

The men must attend six in-house Alcoholics Anonymous meetings each week, call their sponsors daily and meet an 11 p.m. nightly curfew unless working a night shift.

No drinking is allowed, and one slip-up can get you expelled.

"I don't kick them out. They kick themselves out," said Mike, the house manager who asked that his last name not be published. "Some people just aren't ready."

Most staffers at the home have themselves gotten sober there. Mike has one year of sobriety under his belt.

Men can stay up to a year, but the average stay is about nine months.

"We ask for at least a 90-day commitment," Thomas said. "We want to make sure they have enough sobriety to make it."

Ron, who also asked that his last name not be published, is in his fifth month at Samaritan House this time around.

He paid a previous visit in 1997, during which he painted on the living room's wall a large mural of an alcoholic being counseled by two other men. The painting is still there.

Ron now works bussing tables at a nearby restaurant and said he just wasn't ready for sobriety last time around. That's why he ended up back at Samaritan House.

"Until you're ready and you have a solid foundation, you can't exist out there."

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0285.