Local drug addiction activist joins program with apartments and treatment center

Ten men and six women fighting drug and alcohol addiction could soon be waking up in the heart of downtown Akron's arts and entertainment district in dormitory-style apartments above a coffee shop and restaurant, near music venues, the main library, two breweries and the art museum.

The apartment building at Market and High streets housed a business college for most of the 20th century and, most recently, a Bitcoin trader raided by the FBI. Now, out-of-town investors have secured a lease to open Akron House Recovery.

The living space was once a yoga studio and last used by employees of the defunct CoinNinja. With communal bedrooms for men and women on separate floors, the building is crowned by a top-floor cathedral hall with 30-foot-high ceilings. In that space, with a rooftop smoking patio, the investors and program operators envision pinball tables, group therapy sessions, movies on a projector screen, a popcorn machine and pool tables.

But it won’t be all fun and games at Akron House Recovery.

There’s mandatory drug testing, a push for job counseling, help with children’s services for clients who've lost custody of their kids, accompanying treatment and reporting of any slip-ups to judges and parole officers. Program facilitators promise to feed and clothe clients who often come with nothing but a battered hope of recovery. And no one will get tossed out on the street for relapsing without having somewhere to go to restart their recovery.

"We don't want to send them to a place where they're laying around getting high, and that happens too often," said Tugg Massa, a local drug addiction activist and the first employee of Akron House Recovery.

“People burn bridges with their families and sometimes they have to start all over. So it gives them an option instead of couch surfing or dope house surfing,” said Massa, the director of housing and client liaison. “It’s just a safety net, really. And we can also offer resources that you can’t get at home.”

Growing the number of recovery house beds by 17% comes as death certificates from the Summit County Medical Examiner point to a delayed uptick in overdose deaths. While fatal overdoses remained flat in Summit County amid a nationwide spike in 2020, there has been a 41% uptick (from 63 to 89) in deadly overdoses in the first four months of 2021.

Treatment and detox tied to housing

With plans for a recovery coach to staff the apartments 24/7, counseling won't be far away. And an associated detox center is in the works.

Two doors down from the apartments, Akron House Recovery plans to open a treatment center for up to 30 clients, including the 16 tenants.

The housing and the treatment center are scheduled to open this month, Massa and an investor said.

In an upscale suite with glazed brick floors and sleek steel walls, with conference rooms outfitted for the tech company that last used them, the top floors of the old Dickson Transfer Building at 24 N. High St. will initially take clients with private insurance. Eventually, the organization would like to partner with a company that can take Medicaid-eligible patients or apply separately for that privilege.

As part of the expansion, the group of investors behind Akron House Recovery wants to open a detox center in an empty assisted living facility in Stow, which is about 75 feet from an elementary school.

Nathan Leppo, planning and development director for Stow, said a consultant is reviewing zoning and usage for the purposed detox center at 2950 Graham Road in the former Cherry Creek Acres facility.

City officials, including the most vocal advocate for drug treatment, appear to be lukewarm on the location.

“I think the group is wonderful. And I know Tugg personally,” said Christina Shaw, a councilwoman at-large in Stow who helps the homeless population in Greater Akron. “I know it’s a first-class operation. And I have no hesitations about this specific group bringing a detox center. We just have to make sure it’s the right fit in the city of Stow, in the right spot.”

Finding the right path to recovery

Akron House Recovery executives and investors say every staff member in the program will be licensed, from the group facilitator to the recovery coaches to the therapists. That's not always the case in recovery housing, according to experts in mental health and addiction treatment.

Many of the positions have yet to be filled as Massa and his wife April patch and paint over drywall in the apartment building, and head clinician Jarrod Pyle builds a treatment program from scratch.

On a white board in the treatment center, Pyle has listed in dry erase marker nearly 100 ways to recover. For some, God is the answer. Others aren’t there yet, he said. Some never will be. Many find steady footing with crafting or exercise. Others need work and family for stability.

Each recovery path is bolstered by programs that encourage better nutrition, healthy lifestyles, relapse prevention and medication management, to name just a few techniques.

"We're going to reveal all the paths to recovery," said Pyle, a licensed chemical dependency counselor for the past seven years who is also in recovery. Having worked at agencies with rigid recovery programs, Pyle's goal is to offer a comprehensive menu of options, allowing clients to find whatever sustains their sobriety and keep them loving life without drugs.

“There is fun in recovery,” Massa said in his straight-talking, gruff tone. “I can tell you that.”

Community activist takes the job

Since founding Akron Say No To Dope (ASNTD) in 2016, the grizzled Massa has pulled countless men and women from dope houses, homelessness and near-fatal overdoses. While working with area service providers to keep local beds filled to capacity, he said he's often sending new clients away from their hometowns to find available beds, programs more suited to individuals and, sometimes, better outcomes.

ASNTD will continue to operate the thrift store and sober house Massa founded in Kenmore. But Massa said he's been waiting for an opportunity like Akron House Recovery to take a full-time paid position in the fight against drug addiction.

What Akron House Recovery promises is "like nothing" he's ever seen in the city, said Massa, who has witnessed firsthand the cycle of treatment and relapse in the many detox, in-patient, residential, out-patient and other programs in the area.

“We just want to keep them,” said Massa, who often sends clients to New Jersey, Northwest Ohio or Pennsylvania. Out of state, they're isolated from family who in some but not all cases may be key to their recovery. “We want them to not worry about anything but recovery.”

Massa’s own sobriety was coaxed along by a judge and a letter from his daughter that led to some soul searching. His path went through a now-defunct recovery house in Akron.

Kim Patton, the addiction, prevention and training coordinator at the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Services Board, said recovery houses didn't exist a decade ago. She now counts eight service providers, including six funded by the ADM Board, with 94 recovery house beds in Summit County. Akron House Recovery would bring the total to 110. (IBH Addiction Recovery is also adding more beds soon, Patton said.)

Recovery houses, which allow residents to come and go, promote sobriety by supporting the social, occupational and mental well-being of tenants. Residents often get clinical help elsewhere, Patton said, which would make Akron House Recovery unique.

Some recovery houses cater only to women or men. Some are faith-based or focused on finding work. All in Summit County now allow medication-assisted treatment.

They're typically a step down from the most intensive in-patient treatment programs, Patton said. They're not group homes, where people live permanently with others, or sober houses, where people stay for a time without being guaranteed clinical help.

Investor promises better outcomes

With nearly 17 years in the program, it was the birthplace of Alcohol's Anonymous that attracted Gary Smith to the Rubber City — where he soon learned about Massa.

"He’s plugged into all the resources that we’d like to get plugged into — nonprofit, for-profit, doesn’t matter," said Smith, who is an investor in Akron House Recovery with Matt Dore, Stephen Buron, Joseph Coyle and Kenny Sass. All the men are in the drug-and-alcohol-treatment business.

As a group, the men operate More Life Recovery Center in Metuchen, New Jersey, and The Sands Treatment Center in Pompano Beach, Florida.

Smith said he was drawn to Ohio when one of his partners opened the Midwest detox and recovery centers in the Toledo area.

Smith said his staff will get paid and clients will get treatment before they take a profit. Of the 30 slots at the treatment center, he said a couple will be free for patients who'll get "scholarships" if insurance and out-of-pocket doesn't cover the care.

The operation has yet to launch a website. Business cards and emails are still being set up, Smith said. An open house is planned for this fall after operating for two or three months.

Anyone seeking more information can call Massa at 330-786-7450.

Smith said "time will tell" how the new center serves Akron. Born and raised in South Florida, he's familiar with criticism of new programs that exploit the addicted to bilk the system.

"If you just want a place where you can get high and rip on your insurance, you can go somewhere else," Smith said. "Honestly, if you look, there’s probably 3,500 licensed substance abuse treatment centers in the United States. You can pick any other one, but not us."

Reach Doug Livingston at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3792.