The walls are painted light purple and green. Purple butterflies flit across the front window. The logo is branded on the awning above.
But the lights inside 85. S. State St. are off, and a sign on the front door simply reads: “OPENING SOON.”
Before Hope for New Hampshire Recovery can open Concord’s first addiction recovery center, the nonprofit first needs the okay from the city’s zoning board.
“The staff is all trained and ready to rock and roll,” said Holly Cekala, director of recovery support services. “It’s just a matter of making sure our numbers are right in the bank and contracts are signed and the (zoning) board is happy.”
Hope for New Hampshire Recovery is a social service center, which is technically allowed in the urban transitional zone that includes the South State Street building. However, the code of ordinances calls for a public hearing and a vote before the nonprofit can actually operate in the building.
“The board is required to take a specific look at that use, to make sure that the location that is being proposed for that use is suitable and proper,” Zoning Administrator Craig Walker said.
In addition to residences and offices, the recovery center’s neighbors would include St. John’s Regional School and the West Street Playground, about a block away in either direction.
Increased heroin use has raised alarm in New Hampshire, and more than 400 people in the state died of drug overdoses in 2015 – a record high. Hope for New Hampshire Recovery, a revival of a similar but dormant group from the 1990s, started about two years ago to help people stay off drugs after getting sober. It opened the Manchester Recovery Community Center last summer.
Hope for New Hampshire Recovery does not provide treatment or other medical services. Rather, board Chairwoman Cheryl Coletti-Lawson said the organization is designed to connect people struggling with addiction to available services. It also provides peer-to-peer support groups, recovery coaching and job training for people who are in recovery from addiction. The resource centers are open to anyone dealing with substance abuse issues of any kind, not just opiate addiction, and families too.
In July, the nonprofit’s Manchester location saw 131 people. Last month, that number had grown to 2,300 people. A second center has just opened in Newport, and Concord would be the third.
Peter Evers is the president and CEO of Riverbend Community Mental Health, the vice president of behavior health at Concord Hospital and a board member for Hope for New Hampshire Recovery. He said service providers across the community have been meeting to talk about substance abuse and the continuum of care in Concord.
As the hospital and other organizations look to expand treatment options for substance abuse, Evers said helping people maintain their sobriety will be critical.
“They are the hand-off,” Evers said of Hope for New Hampshire Recovery. “Treatment works best when it has recovery supports, when it has peers that can support people through their recovery.”
The Manchester center on Pine Street operates seven days a week. The schedule typically runs from 9 a.m. to close to 9 p.m. Activities include meetings for groups like Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous, a GED class and gatherings for young people in recovery.
But Concord could be different. Hope for New Hampshire Recovery leaders said programs will depend on what the community wants and needs. For example, the Manchester center hosts a yoga class for people in recovery. But Concord’s Center for Health Promotion also hosts yoga classes, Coletti-Lawson said, so the new center probably won’t host a competing class.
The Manchester location is also connected to Amber’s Place, which offers temporary housing for people waiting to get into detox or treatment. Hope for New Hampshire Recovery leaders said there is no plan for the Concord center to include that kind of program.
“We want to really understand what services are offered in Concord, and then how do we complement those. . . . The schedule of events will kind of morph and unfold,” Coletti-Lawson said.
So the nonprofit doesn’t yet have a clear picture of what the Concord schedule would look like. Cekala estimated most activity would go on between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., though some events or meetings might extend into the evening.
Initially, they expected staff to include a center manager, at least two peer-to-peer recovery coaches and several trained volunteers.
Without much detail, some neighbors are hoping the zoning board will help them get answers.
“I’m not against it,” nearby resident Marcia Krueger said. “I just want to be well-informed and see what they’re doing.”
Krueger, 65, has lived on South State Street, a couple of doors down from the center, for her entire life. She learned about Hope for New Hampshire Recovery from an article in the Monitor announcing the plans to open in Concord. She has heard from one other person in the neighborhood who said she will probably attend the zoning board meeting.
“My thought is, I want more information,” Krueger said. “I have no idea what the hours are or really how it works or how it will affect the neighborhood.”
Annmarie Timmins, who also lives nearby on South State Street, sent a letter outlining similar concerns to many of her neighbors. Timmins is a former Monitor reporter.
“I am not opposing Hope for Recovery’s center,” Timmins wrote in her letter. “But I do have concerns about its hours of operation, business plan, parking and coordination with the Concord police and fire services.”
Across the street from the Concord center is property owned by CATCH Neighborhood Housing; that building includes residential units and office space.
“Cheryl was fantastic in reaching out to us from the very beginning, and we are super excited for all assistance for people who are in recovery,” President Rosemary Heard said.
Other abutters, including Concord Housing and Redevelopment, did not return requests for comment. The principal of St. John’s Regional School, which is located down the street, also did not respond, and a staff person at a neighboring law firm said the owner had no comment about Hope for New Hampshire Recovery.
Coletti-Lawson said she’s received far more positive than negative feedback and has invited neighbors to community meetings at the center.
“Even the neighbors, the one or two that raised a concern, they raise a concern respectfully,” Coletti-Lawson said. “They’re not saying ‘no’ to the need. They’re just saying, ‘I have a concern.’ And most of that concern is out of fear of what it’s going to be. We’ve had enormous support.”
She also said locating in Concord should not increase criminal activity or disturb the neighborhood.
“My biggest advocacy is, people don’t come into our centers and use drugs and drink alcohol,” Coletti-Lawson said. “They come in looking for help. So we don’t see that.”
Concord police Chief Brad Osgood said he has attended at least one meeting with Hope for New Hampshire Recovery, and he is familiar with the organization’s work in Manchester. He said he didn’t have any concerns with the center opening in Concord, and he applauded the group’s work in addressing the addiction epidemic that has taken hold in New Hampshire.
“Treatment and recovery is not the lane that police officers generally travel in,” Osgood said. “We leave that up to the specialists, people that are licensed to provide that service. . . . There are not enough treatment facilities and recovery centers to handle the population that are in need of those services.”
Hope for New Hampshire Recovery announced its plans to open in Concord in February. The building previously housed a co-working space called Work Nest, a venture by commercial real estate developer Ben Kelley. The sale closed at the beginning of April and included an apartment building next door.
Kelley purchased the two buildings for $335,000 in 2015; after renovating both properties, he said he sold to Coletti-Lawson and her husband, Scott Lawson, for $780,000.
Coletti-Lawson has said the Manchester center costs about $300,000 to run, and the budget for the Concord location should be about half that figure.
“Hope for New Hampshire Recovery is doing this with no federal and state funding at this point in time,” Coletti-Lawson said. “Not a dime. We are relying on the largesse of business and private donors to keep our doors open.”
About 50 percent of Hope for New Hampshire Recovery’s funding comes from private contributions from the local business community; the rest comes from fundraisers and grants.
Employers buy into a contract for what’s called a “workplace initiative.” While the resource centers are free for anyone to use, Cekala said Hope for New Hampshire Recovery works specifically with those businesses to educate its staff about substance abuse disorders and how they can get help.
Lawson’s company, the Lawson Group, has signed on. Cekala said other contracts and grant applications are in the works.
“How many people from one company are going to use the services? We hope all of them use it if they need it,” Cekala said. “The rest of (the money) stays in that community to help support that center.”
If approved at the zoning board, the Concord center would open “very soon after,” Cekala said.
“We see the need to open now,” she said.
The zoning board will meet Wednesday at 7 p.m. in council chambers.
(Megan Doyle can be reached at 369-3321, mdoyle@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @megan_e_doyle.)