Baltimore's only long-term residential drug treatment program will be expanded next year as the city steps up efforts to combat a chronic cocaine and heroin problem, Mayor Martin O'Malley announced yesterday.
"This is a great day for a lot of people who are learning to believe in themselves," said O'Malley, standing outside Bright Hope House Inc. in West Baltimore. "We badly need more residential treatment slots in Baltimore."
The mayor announced that $1.5 million funded by the city, state and private donors would be used to expand Bright Hope House in Sandtown-Winchester from a 22-bedroom to a 32- bedroom facility.
Developer Curtis L. Myles Sr. said his company would gut the building at 1611 Baker St., renovate it and build an addition. Work is scheduled to begin late next month and is to be completed by July. During construction, patients at Bright Hope will be housed in trailers in the parking lot of nearby St. Gregory the Great Roman Catholic Church, Myles said.
Battling drugs in Baltimore, which was once called the most addicted major city in America by the Drug Enforcement Administration, has been one of O'Malley's priorities.
In April, the city launched its "Believe" campaign, an effort urging addicts to stop using drugs and encouraging everyone else to help by mentoring children and reporting crimes. The black-and-white "Believe" bumper stickers and signs throughout the city promote the campaign.
O'Malley said yesterday that there have been some hopeful signs. The city recorded a 36 percent drop in heroin-related emergency room visits and a 29 percent decrease in cocaine-related visits from last year to this year.
Funding for the Bright Hope expansion is supported by the city's Department of Housing and Community Development, Baltimore City Health Department, state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Abell Foundation.
The expansion is the third major project by the city in Sandtown-Winchester in the past two years. A senior citizens home is under construction next door to Bright Hope and a $5.4 million community center, New Song Center, opened on Gilmor Street in April last year.