Center for homeless women opens in Cape

The Vision House, a long-term, faith-based transitional center for homeless women with drug and alcohol addictions, opened with plenty of food and fanfare Saturday.

About 150 people ate four pork butts, 30 pork steaks, 30 pounds of hamburgers, 40 hotdogs and 25 bratwursts.

But perhaps the most important thing served at the Vision House, says director Theresa Taylor, isn't food at all.

It's hope.

Taylor, a recovered addict for nine years, spent the last two years planning for Saturday. The Vision House is an eight-unit apartment complex at 10 N. Middle St. in Cape Girardeau.

On Tuesday, eight women will share four of those units, all of which have been repaired, painted and decorated. The women all have recently been through drug treatment programs and all were either homeless before or were going to be homeless after they started those programs.

They'll be able to stay in at the Vision House for up to two years, as long as it takes to form healthy lifestyle habits.

But there's a catch: no drugs, no alcohol, no excuses.

"We have a zero-tolerance policy," Taylor said. "The first time you're caught, you're out of here. This is serious. You'll have every opportunity in the world here, but I'm not playing games. If you don't want it, get out so somebody else can have a chance."

Taylor talks a tough game, but she knows she has to if she's to help these women. She's knows that if you give an addict any room to manipulate, they'll do it.

The apartments will be under video surveillance. Soon, the facility will be equipped with a breathalyzer and the tenants will have to prove they're sober before going into their rooms and any time they have a visitor. There will be curfews.

But there will also be ongoing programs, many of them religious, to focus on lifestyle changes. Taylor says addiction to the drugs is only 10 percent of the problem. She says addicts need a lifestyle change. They have to "reprogram themselves."

And that is something addicts are apparently not getting in other programs.

Melissa Mackey knows this first hand. She's 25 years old and will be one of the first Vision House guests.

She's tried 14 different drug rehabilitation programs since 2002. A crack abuser, the longest she's been clean is four months.

The problem with the other programs is their brevity, she said. They last 30 days at the most, and "you have to fight just to get that."

"If this was not here, it would be very stressful taking on sobriety, finding housing and finding a job substantial enough to find housing," she said. "At times in the past, that has hindered my recovery."

The Vision House appears to be a rare type of program. There are none like it in St. Louis, Mackey said. She said she was transferred to the Family Counseling Center from St. Louis because the FCC could provide a long-term program through the Vision House.

Donna Bruce, 44, who moved from St. Louis to Dexter, will room with Mackey. She said she thinks the Vision House will give her the hope and stability she needs to get over her alcoholism.

bmiller@semissourian.com

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