After time in a homeless shelter, in prison or on the streets, men come to Our Safe Place in Milwaukee to live in an environment devoid of the things that ruined their lives: drugs and alcohol. The building, on 29th Street near Marquette University, houses 50 men in recovery.
Luis Medina
Luis Medina had one of the cleanest rooms in the building. Everything in his room had a place. His sobriety coins were stacked neatly on the side table next to his favorite chair.
The 52-year-old hair stylist got out of prison in March and had been trying to get his life on a healthy track, in part by living at Our Safe Place since September.
Five days a week, Medina went to intensive outpatient meetings through Matt Talbot Recovery Services in Milwaukee. He said he didn’t have withdrawals anymore. But he still had thoughts.
“Not all of the time, but they do still come,” he said.
Medina started using drugs when he was 15. Alcohol and cocaine were his favorites, but he said he has been sober since July. Medina is from Chicago.
“I had a girlfriend in Rockford. We broke up through my addiction, so I came to Milwaukee,” he said.
Medina has been sober several times throughout his life. Two weeks ago, he said that this time would be different.
“I just got awarded $6,000 dollars through disability, Social Security,” Medina said.
He was excited about the money. In many cases, money is a barrier for people in recovery. When addicts leave prison, they don’t have the resources to move to a different area or get into a recovery program, so they fall back into the life they lived before prison. Having money can be the ticket that brings addicts to sobriety.
Or, it can drag them back to addiction.
“A lot of guys are triggered by money,” said Andy Liss, program manager at Our Safe Place. Having money to spend can be a problem and can cause people who were previously doing well to relapse.
Medina was walking to the Kilbourn Kitchen, a corner store that has beauty supplies, meat deals and cheap cigarettes. He and Liss were together when a passerby asked them a common question in this part of Milwaukee: Want to try a sample?
They told the man no and kept walking. But the incident didn’t leave Liss’ mind. He worried about Medina.
“In the back of my head, I wondered if that was enough to get that thought going,” he said.
Medina relapsed later that night.
“It starts with a thought, becomes a craving and once you start craving it you can’t get it out of your head, you’re going to use,” Liss said.
Adam Hicks
The phone rang and he answered it.
“You know where I’m at now? 29th and Wells,” Adam Hicks said.
Hicks moved to Our Safe Place about a month ago. Before this, he was at Matt Talbot, the residential recovery center. He says he likes this place much better.
An anomaly in the building, Hicks doesn’t have any kids and hasn’t done any time in jail or prison.
Starting when he was 22, he used crack cocaine off and on. In the last five years he says he got more heavily into the drug.
“Then, I said to hell with it, so I told my case worker to put me into rehab,” he said.
His life is a lot different now. Before, he said, people were always coming, knocking on his door and wanting him to get them drugs. Now he spends time going to meetings, programs and enjoying his favorite things in the room: “My flat screen and my Blu-Ray,” he said.
The Liss Family
Andy Liss’ parents bought the building in 2005 without knowing that it was operating as a place for people in recovery. They decided to continue that mission under the name Our Safe Place. As program manager, Liss handles daily operations for the building and residents.
Earlier this month, Liss called his wife and tell her it would be a long day. A U.S. Marshal had shot a suspect in a shooting across the street, a gas pipe had burst and there was a funeral for a resident. And this was all before lunch.
The building has a capacity of 50 people in about 25 apartments. Each apartment contains a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living space. One person lives in the bedroom, the other in the living space.
Most residents have their first 3-6 months paid for by the Milwaukee Behavioral Health Division. After that, if they want to stay, they begin paying rent.
Jack Schmidt
In 15 minutes, Jack Schmidt would be meeting a friend to go to the gym. There is a work out area in the building, but Schmidt said he and his friend would be going to a “real gym.”
Schmidt is one of three live-in staff members. He has been working for Our Safe Place for about 6 months. His main role is helping with random drug testing of the residents.
He attributes much of his success to drug court, a program where non-violent offenders are offered what amounts to a second chance if they follow a strict schedule of classes, meetings and drug tests. If participants successfully complete the program, charges can be erased from their records.
“I think it saved my life,” he said.
Schmidt is the first one to tell you his life wasn’t good before drug court.
“I was stealing tens of thousands of dollars from my parents. I was not respected by anybody and I didn’t have any respect for myself,” he said.
Schmidt still calls himself a heroin addict, though he has been sober for almost 29 months.
Robert Dockins
If you ask Robert Dockins where he is from, he will likely reply, “thank you very much,” in an Elvis-esque voice, just to throw you off.
Dockins moved to Milwaukee from Memphis. His parents got divorced. His dad was a player, he said. At a young age, Dockins began smoking marijuana and drinking beer.
“Anything you practice, you are going to be good at,” he said. “If you are using a lot of drugs and alcohol, you are practicing.”
Eight months ago, he decided enough was enough. He says he was becoming a slave to crack cocaine. Dockins attributes his addiction to hanging out with the wrong people.
“Peer pressure is one of the biggest reasons why people ruin their lives and do stupid things,” he said.
Terranzo Butler
“When you do the right thing, blessings fall out of the sky here,” Terranzo Butler said, donut in hand.
Butler came to Our Safe Place from Matt Talbot about a year ago. He used drugs his whole life, starting when he was 12 and tried marijuana. He says weed was a gateway for him.
For the first part of his life Butler lived in Chicago, where he was involved in drug use, crime and gangs.
In a gang-related attack, Butler lost part of his finger. A man put a gun up to his head and when butler grabbed it, the gun blew his finger off.
“I grabbed [the gun] and ended up taking it from him so he ran,” Butler said. “I lived a very crazy lifestyle in Chicago. All that’s in the past.”
His lifestyle changed drastically when he moved to Our Safe Place. He has eight kids and they come to visit him often.
“When I was out on the street, I didn’t care about anybody but me. I didn’t have the close-knit relationships I have now,” he said.
Willis Davis
Sitting in his room and meditating is one of Willis Davis’ favorite things to do. He might turn the radio on, but mostly he sits in silence.
Davis has been living at Our Safe place for six months and has been sober for seven. It was crack cocaine and alcohol that brought him here.
“I just lay back and think about the future. Sometimes I think about the past,” he said. “I just try to focus on being grateful because I’m clean today.”