By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
A DePaul University study shows that recovering addicts who stay 18 months in an Oxford House have an 87.7 percent chance of never using drugs or alcohol again. Oxford alumni Mike Swalley and others discussed the importance of local Oxford Houses with the Barton County Commission Tuesday morning.
"What Oxford House is is a financially self-supporting, democratically-ran, three-quarter house," Swalley said. "It's not like a halfway house. We are not state-funded. We are financially self-supporting, which means that everybody pays their equal share."
Swalley is celebrating 10 years of sobriety. He started at an Oxford House in Wichita and moved to Barton County for work. In 2015, he was notified a new Oxford House would be opening in Great Bend and was asked to keep an eye on it. Eight years later, Barton County has four Oxford Houses and the situation is much different.
"Nobody would rent to us because nobody knew what we had going on here," Swalley said. "The houses we have today are really nice houses, and that's the way they should be. We've all come out of poverty. We've all come out of bad places. To live in a nice home and be able to take care of it really means a lot."
Thirteen local Oxford members attended the world convention in Florida - the second-largest contingency at the convention of 2,600 Oxford members in recovery. As part of Tuesday's presentation, Swalley expressed a desire to speak with judges about how drug offenders are being sentenced to live in Oxford Houses. If those offenders have no money, they cannot contribute to the house's ability to remain financially self-supporting.
Swalley also shared details about the history of Oxford Houses and how they work. J. Paul Molloy was an attorney and legislative assistant to Vermont Senator Winston Prouty in the late 1960s. Alcohol began to dominate his life after leaving the senate committee in 1972. He lost his wife and home and was living in a Maryland halfway house in 1975 when the county government decided to close the home. Molloy and the residents purchased the home and split expenses.
"The halfway house was getting ready to shut down and they didn't know what they were going to do so he ended up buying the place and opened up the first Oxford House in Silver Springs, Maryland in 1975," Swalley said.
Barton County Oxfords have approximately 10 residents each house. Each member pays a $150 non-refundable move-in fee, then pays approximately $120 each week for rent, food, toiletries, and amenities. The homes must be democratically ran, and each home has a president, secretary, treasurer, comptroller, and shopper.
During Tuesday's meeting, the commission heard from four more Oxford members who spoke of the importance of the homes in their lives. Tracy has been sober since late June of this year. Oxford has contributed to significant improvements in her life in just a few weeks.
"I was broken," she said. "Since coming back, I've gained a little bit of ego and a whole bunch of spiritual gratitude. The girls in the house don't let me sit around and feel sorry for myself. We hold each other accountable."
Tracy is a two-time survivor of Narcan, which is available in all Oxford Houses. The last life-saving dose came from one of those houses. Now an Oxford resident, she can stay until she's ready to leave.
"We don't have an out-date at an Oxford House," she said. "No one is going to kick me out once I get six months clean or a year clean. I can stay there until I feel like I'm ready to go as long as I'm not disruptive, I pay my rent, and I practice some principles in my life (and don't drink or use)."
Chris, who has been sober for more than two years, said he did not believe in Oxford House when he first became a member. He grew up around drug abuse and became an angry, violent person.
"When I moved into Oxford, it taught me how to handle situations without reacting out of anger," he said. "That was my biggest problem. Now, I'm a pretty centered, simple person. I know how to think things through without reacting to them. It's one thing to be angry but it's different to act on your anger."
Chris said Oxford teaches residents how to keep a clean house, how to pay bills, and other daily tasks that children and adults coming from dysfunctional pasts may have never learned. He now has a wife, a good job, chairs a weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, and even moved back into an Oxford House he thought was struggling.
"Without Oxford being in Great Bend or Barton County, I feel this community would fail drastically with the drug problem going on," he said.
Jacob has been sober for two months. Suffering from a disability, he used to sit around and do nothing, using drugs and alcohol to pass the time. He said that's not an option at Oxford Houses because something is always going on and it's always positive.
"One of the things I love most about Oxford Houses is the camaraderie - all the other people with the same goals and same intentions," he said. "We're all striving to get there."