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Kaitlyn, age 32, applied for a spot at Hope Center Ministries near the end of 2021 because it seemed like her best option at the time. She had pleaded guilty in February to one count of criminal endangerment related to reckless driving and, after being released, violated her probation by reportedly failing to show up for check-ins and possessing drug paraphernalia. Court records say she had told her probation officer she\u2019d been using methamphetamine, even as she denied having a problem with drugs or alcohol. The women\u2019s sober living home in Clancy, her attorney advised, would help her get out of jail and give her a structured environment to recover from substance use. <\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t really know a lot about it,\u201d Kaitlyn said in a December interview. \u201cHe just told me that it was a treatment center and that I could benefit from it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Montana Free Press agreed to refer to Kaitlyn by a pseudonym to protect her privacy. <\/p>\n
The residence in Clancy is one of two Hope Center Ministries locations in Montana, including a men\u2019s program in Butte, and 36 nationwide. Though it\u2019s described as a \u201cdrug addiction treatment center\u201d on its Facebook page, the national admissions coordinator who testified at Kaitlyn\u2019s November 2021 hearing in Boulder described it as a \u201clong-term faith-based drug and alcohol recovery program.\u201d On its national website, Hope Center Ministries says its purpose is to \u201clead addicts and their families to become fully devoted followers of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to a court transcript of the hearing, Kaitlyn\u2019s public defense attorney told District Court Judge Luke Berger that Hope Center Ministries\u2019 34-bed women\u2019s home would provide her with some recovery support and help her maintain compliance with the terms of her probation.<\/p>\n
The prosecutor on Kaitlyn\u2019s case, Jefferson County Attorney Andrew Paul, argued for a different route, telling the judge he thought Kaitlyn needed clinical addiction treatment. He asked Hope Center\u2019s then-admissions coordinator, Ashley Drake, what kind of doctors the organization had on staff at the house where Kaitlyn would be going. None, Drake replied. But she said the program would transport residents off-site for any necessary mental health care needs, medication or diagnoses.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you would agree with me that medical staff would be appropriate for somebody who is chemically addicted to substances, wouldn\u2019t you?\u201d Paul asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, that would really depend upon which recovery approach that you choose,\u201d Drake answered.<\/p>\n
UNREGULATED RECOVERY<\/p>\n
Hope Center Ministries, which opened its Clancy home in 2020, is one example among many of unlicensed and unregulated sober living residences currently operating in Montana. The programs can offer housing and support to people coming out of jail, prison, or clinical treatment, but there is no state oversight of the services they provide. Like most states, Montana doesn\u2019t require sober living facilities to be licensed by the state in order to operate. Unless they provide clinical services that merit licensure as a residential treatment facility, sober living homes in Montana are also not required to employ licensed addiction counselors, social workers, or psychologists. <\/p>\n
In the absence of dependable state oversight, industry groups have formed to set the bar for ethical standards. At a May presentation to Montana lawmakers and law enforcement officials, National Alliance of Recovery Residences Executive Director Dave Sheridan said such homes are generally designed to be distinct from clinical inpatient treatment and can include many different kinds of recovery programming and house governance. The organization\u2019s certification standards, he said, focus on whether recovery residences operate with \u201cintegrity.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThey uphold residents\u2019 rights. They are creating a culture of empowerment,\u201d Sheridan said. \u201cWe\u2019re also working to ensure that residences are true home-like environments, that they\u2019re not institutional and custodial, and that they provide recovery support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montana addiction recovery experts have spent the last year developing a NARR affiliate to certify such homes, an effort that program staff say will pick up speed over the next year. But the state\u2019s recovery industry has long operated without state regulation or independent accreditation, creating a constellation of providers with disparate standards. Without oversight, reform advocates say, sober living residences in Montana and nationwide can be unsafe, punitive, and financially exploitative for a vulnerable demographic often enmeshed in the criminal justice system. <\/p>\n
The lack of regulation has also created a murky landscape for judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys weighing clinical treatment for substance use disorders and non-clinical recovery programs. With caseloads full of people charged with drug-related offenses, law enforcement entities are often under pressure to find community placements and treatment facilities willing to take defendants. <\/p>\n
\u201cAny options are a good option when your only other option is jail,\u201d said Claire Lettow, managing attorney for the Office of Public Defender region that includes Cascade County. Lettow said she and other attorneys in her office have had clients apply for beds at the Hope Center residences in Clancy and Butte in part because of the shortage of inpatient treatment in their jurisdiction. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a handful of outpatient treatment providers here, but there is a lack of sober living and there is zero inpatient treatment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
During Kaitlyn\u2019s hearing, Hope Center Ministries\u2019 admissions coordinator, Drake, explained that the year-long program includes 24-hour supervision, Bible study and a mandatory \u201cvocational training program\u201d in which residents work at local job sites that hold staffing contracts with the ministry. Eventually, she said, residents gain more privileges around the home to help them prepare to transition back into the community. Drake said the income residents generate through their work placement helps pay for the cost of their stay in the home, and also serves as a main source of revenue for the program.<\/p>\n
Sam Martin, Kaitlyn\u2019s attorney, told Judge Berger that releasing Kaitlyn to the Clancy home would help keep her in compliance with the terms of her probation and give her the advantages of a supportive environment. <\/p>\n
\u201cTheir program focuses on providing not only recovery aspects for addiction, but also life supports and general betterment of someone, if you will,\u201d Martin said, adding that the program would help Kaitlyn \u201cget out of the cycle that she is currently in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul, the county attorney, disagreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cJudge, to call this treatment is quite a stretch since they don\u2019t have any sort of medical personnel that are available to assist somebody with their chemical addictions. It\u2019s basically a kumbaya. \u2018We\u2019ll take care of you for money.\u2019 And that\u2019s all it is,\u201d Paul said. \u201cIt is simply a place where Hope Ministries is making money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Berger eventually sided with Martin and agreed to refer Kaitlyn to the Clancy program as a condition of her continued probation. He stressed that he did not have the power to mandate her attendance at Bible study or to complete any religious service, but affirmed that she was agreeing to abide by the rules of the program to which she had applied. <\/p>\n
As part of a longer explanation for his decision, Berger told Kaitlyn and the courtroom that he can\u2019t know what type of addiction program might work for each person who appears before him. <\/p>\n
\u201cI hate to say it this way, but you\u2019re going to prove one of us wrong,\u201d the judge told Kaitlyn. \u201cIf this is what works for you, then this works for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
WORK WITHOUT PAY<\/p>\n
When she showed up on the program\u2019s doorstep, Kaitlyn told MTFP, she thought the home was beautiful, with scenic views of the surrounding mountains. Soon she was following the same strict rules and routines as other residents, doing house chores, studying the Bible and completing related homework assignments. One activity required residents to apply scripture to their life experience and write a prayer. Kaitlyn said that early morning practice was her favorite activity. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt helped me every day,\u201d Kaitlyn said in a December interview. \u201cIt built my character. It gave me more confidence than I ever had before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout her time at Hope Center Ministries, she said, she never worked with a licensed provider on an addiction recovery treatment plan. While the program let residents schedule \u201ccounseling\u201d sessions with volunteers who visited the house, Kaitlyn said the people facilitating those sessions weren\u2019t licensed professionals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how they\u2019re open if they don\u2019t have any licensed people,\u201d she said. \u201cThey were just people who had read the Bible,\u201d Kaitlyn said. <\/p>\n
The director of Hope Center Ministries\u2019 Clancy home, Carolyn Belling, declined MTFP\u2019s requests for an interview about the program and did not respond to an emailed list of questions about the experiences shared by Kaitlyn and other residents. Multiple calls and emails to the national organization were not returned.<\/p>\n
After about six weeks at the home, Kaitlyn began working roughly 40 hours a week at one of Hope Center Ministries\u2019 contracted vocational training job sites, a burrito restaurant on the Carroll College campus in Helena operated by Sodexo, a national food service company. Sodexo did not respond to MTFP\u2019s questions about its work agreement with the ministry. <\/p>\n
Kaitlyn and two other former residents who worked at different Helena businesses told MTFP they did not receive paychecks from their job placements and weren\u2019t scheduled to receive payment until the last eight weeks of the program \u2014 a phase, Drake had testified, during which residents learn financial responsibility and companies can \u201cactually add them on\u201d as employees. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou weren\u2019t paid,\u201d Kaitlyn said of the ministry\u2019s vocational training program. \u201cIt got sent to the Hope Center.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two other former residents who spoke with MTFP said they spent their vocational training at Taco Bell locations in Helena, where they worked 40 hours per week. Joseph Sample, the owner-operator of Taco Bell locations in Helena and Butte, confirmed the businesses\u2019 relationship with Hope Center Ministries to MTFP, saying they have employed 14 participants from the vocational program over the last 18 months. Several, Sample said, have stayed on as employees after leaving the Hope Center residences, and one is \u201con track\u201d for a management position.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are proud to offer an opportunity for people in our community to have a second chance,\u201d Sample said. Neither Sample nor a national Taco Bell spokesperson responded to additional questions about the company\u2019s contracts with Hope Center Ministries.<\/p>\n
Hope Center\u2019s vocational training program serves two primary purposes, according to the organization\u2019s national website. It\u2019s meant to help residents bolster their work ethic during recovery while providing \u201cadditional income for the ministry.\u201d In federal tax filings from 2019, the last year for which the Internal Revenue Service has a complete filing publicly available, Hope Center Ministries reported that \u201cwork therapy\u201d accounted for more than $3.3 million of the organization\u2019s nearly $6 million in total revenues that year.<\/p>\n
The ministry also accepts donations, grants and gifts to support its mission, a category that totalled about $1.7 million in 2019 revenue. Since the group opened its two Montana locations in 2020, one of its funders has been the Gianforte Family Foundation, the philanthropic trust of Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte, First Lady Susan Gianforte, and their four children. The foundation gifted Hope Center Ministries a cumulative $70,000 between 2020 and 2021, according to the trust\u2019s recent nonprofit tax documents.<\/p>\n
Nationwide, hundreds of drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs require residents to work without pay, either for the program itself or at contracted businesses, according to a 2020 investigation by the news outlet Reveal. At some high-profile sober living residences in other states, residents receive free clinical treatment, housing and food, but not monetary wages for their labor. Critics say that business model is ethically fraught for people with substance use disorders, and a potential violation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe long and the short is there\u2019s no exception in the Fair Labor Standards Act \u2026 that would cover this circumstance,\u201d said D. Michael Hancock, counsel at the national Cohen Milstein law firm and a former assistant administrator for the U.S. Department of Labor\u2019s Wage and Hour Division. \u201cIf somebody works at Taco Bell, they\u2019re entitled to be paid for their labor, period. I\u2019m unaware of any Taco Bell exemption from the Fair Labor Standards Act.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hancock is among the attorneys litigating a series of cases against the Salvation Army on behalf of former residents of the organization\u2019s adult rehabilitation programs, claiming the charity failed to treat residents as employees but required them to labor without sufficient pay. A similar lawsuit, certified as a class action this year, is proceeding against the Texas-based Cenikor Foundation for allegedly pocketing millions of dollars in wages earned by residents of its drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs. <\/p>\n
In addition to conflicting with federal law, Hancock said, the work-without-pay model takes advantage of people with few other options, many of whom lack stable housing and an income to afford sustained treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have a desperate population who desperately need help. And so they\u2019re willing to go into these programs, even if it means that they\u2019re going to be exploited,\u201d Hancock said.<\/p>\n
SNAP ALLEGATIONS<\/p>\n
Kaitlyn also said Hope Center staff asked her to sign up for SNAP, the public food assistance program, while she was at the residence. Two other former residents recounted the same experience, saying that, after their applications were approved, they turned their benefits cards over to Hope Center staff for purchasing household groceries. Food in the house was closely monitored, the former participants said, and the fridge and cupboards locked outside of designated meal times. <\/p>\n
Jessie, a former resident who also asked MTFP to refer to her with a pseudonym to protect her privacy, said residence staff did not return her food assistance card when she completed the program. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey weren\u2019t going to give it to me when I left,\u201d Jessie said in a December interview. \u201cThey weren\u2019t going to physically give me my card. They said that they would get rid of it. And I just didn\u2019t trust that.\u201d<\/p>\n
After leaving the home, Jessie said, she called the state health department to report her benefit card lost or stolen, eventually telling a department employee that the facility was trying to keep it. <\/p>\n
MTFP could not confirm whether the state Department of Public Health and Human Services or the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversee the food assistance program, have ever investigated Home Center Ministries\u2019 use of SNAP benefits based on Jessie\u2019s complaint or any other reports. Health department spokesperson Jon Ebelt said nonprofit group homes that are smaller than 16 beds can apply to use SNAP benefits based on the eligibility of their residents, but that such facilities would obtain their own group home card. Ebelt would not confirm whether Hope Center Ministries was an approved group home for SNAP use, saying \u201cthat information is confidential\u201d based on federal regulation and state laws governing the administration of public benefits. <\/p>\n
Saima Akhtar, a senior attorney at the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, said that while federal regulations can allow for some congregate settings to use SNAP benefits for residents, the benefits technically belong to the individual, not the facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the language of the federal regulation. That is the federal standard,\u201d Akhtar said. If a resident leaves the program, she continued, their benefits should transfer with them. \u201cThe benefits do not belong to the agency. The benefits should travel with the resident,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
While the state health department does publish findings on individual reports of SNAP abuse and fraud, the names of the parties are redacted and don\u2019t indicate whether Hope Center Ministries has ever been the subject of an investigation. In December, MTFP filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking any documentation related to investigations of Hope Center Ministries by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but did not receive a response before publication.<\/p>\n
NO MECHANISM FOR OVERSIGHT<\/p>\n
Reports of unethical business practices are not uncommon in the recovery industry, including work without pay, financially motivated patient referrals, and profiteering from gratuitous drug testing. Without oversight, the prevalence of exploitative and unethical conduct in Montana has been impossible to quantify. But local authorities and state lawmakers have recently begun pushing for more regulatory mechanisms to keep pace with the industry.<\/p>\n
In March, the Billings city attorney\u2019s office presented to lawmakers and law enforcement officials on the state Criminal Justice Oversight Committee about the minimal data and anecdotal reports it had amassed about approximately 35 sober living homes within Billings city limits. The effort to collect information began, assistant city attorney Karen Tracy said, in response to complaints lodged with the Billings City Council about unchecked sober living home operators. Tracy told legislators and law enforcement stakeholders on the committee that the city attorney\u2019s office had received reports of substandard housing conditions, residents having their possessions held as collateral if they did not pay rent, and an \u201cextremely consistent theme\u201d of evictions for minor violations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a very vulnerable population of residents who may not feel comfortable contacting law enforcement, who may not have the sophistication of availing themselves of the landlord-tenant courts,\u201d Tracy said. \u201cSo we\u2019ve got an issue here where we\u2019re placing people into these homes or they are entering these homes voluntarily and they\u2019re being taken advantage of by your shady or sketchier operators.\u201d<\/p>\n
After months of study, the committee drafted a new proposal for lawmakers to consider during the 2023 Legislature that would bring a degree of oversight to the sober living industry, including a new requirement that addiction recovery residences register with the state health department. If adopted, the bill would also explicitly bar recovery residences from making false or misleading statements about their services under threat of prosecution for violating the Montana Consumer Protection Act.<\/p>\n
In the coming months, more recovery home operators will also be able to voluntarily seek certification from the Recovery Residences Alliance of Montana (RRAM), the state affiliate created in 2021 that can accredit homes based on national best practices. As of December, RRAM had certified three organizations operating 10 homes in Billings, Missoula and Ronan.<\/p>\n
Hope Center Ministries\u2019 Clancy Director Belling did not respond to questions about whether the residence plans to apply for certification through RRAM. If it does, its operations will be measured against the latest industry standards, which emphasize respect for residents\u2019 rights and prioritizing their safety, health and well-being. <\/p>\n
Nancy Marcus Newman, a Pennsylvania-based civil rights attorney who has represented recovery residences and lectured on unethical practices in the industry, said it\u2019s hard to see how a work therapy program using residents\u2019 paychecks as revenue would align with best-practice standards for sober living homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a democratic, self-help recovery environment where residents are seeking their independence and learning about taking responsibility for themselves. And I think that getting a job and getting a paycheck and learning how to be financially independent is one of the goals,\u201d Newman said. \u201cI don\u2019t see where taking that money from somebody is in any way contributing to their recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018GOOD LUCK\u2019<\/p>\n
Whatever recovery industry reforms Montana may advance in the coming months, countless residents have already cycled through sober living residences operating without any standards for quality assurance, best practices or efficacy. While some residents may have left programs with months of sobriety and a vision for their future, others gained much less.<\/p>\n
Kaitlyn was discharged from Hope Center Ministries in the spring of 2022 after being fired from her job at Sodexo and accused of violating the residence\u2019s rules. She told MTFP she felt sabotaged and unsupported by the program, despite her efforts to graduate. One night, she said, Belling, the program director, drove her away from the residence, bought her a phone from Walmart, and dropped her off at God\u2019s Love, a downtown Helena shelter. Kaitlyn said there was no invitation to come back.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt really shitty, honestly,\u201d Kaitlyn said. \u201cShe just said \u2018good luck.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
In the months after, court records show that Kaitlyn failed out of another placement at the YWCA in Helena after testing positive for meth and returned to jail to wait until her next hearing before Judge Berger. As of December, about a year after she first arrived at the Hope Center, she was waiting to be transferred to Passages in Billings, a women\u2019s correctional facility that offers inpatient drug and alcohol treatment. If given an opportunity to return to the Clancy home, Kaitlyn said, she likely wouldn\u2019t take it. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I would go back, honestly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mara Silvers is a reporter for the Montana Free Press, a nonprofit newsroom based in Helena. To read the article as originally published, click here.<\/a><\/em> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n