The Beginning of Opportunity House
The idea behind Opportunity House evolved when a New Mexico Magisitrate
Judge asked some of the local A.A. people to take a meeting to the county
jail. He was concerned about the high recidivism rate. People coming before
him with drug or alcohol charges were seemingly only being temporarily
removed from the streets. Incarceration didn't help - they came back. So a
weekly A.A. meeting was scheduled at the jail. After 2 years of weekly
meetings where inmates expressed a desire to change, nothing actually did.
They kept revolving in and out of jail. They hated being incarcerated, but
they seemed powerless to change and doomed to repeat their mistakes.
Returning to the same environment with no job or money, they were soon
back doing what had placed them in jail initially. To break this cycle, it was
determined that a drug and alcohol free environment was needed for
inmates to come and live once released or sentenced. They needed to be
shown how to get and keep a job, taught responsibility, helped to find a
higher power and eased back into mainstream society.
Thus, the Opportunity House Program was born. In December 1996,
Opportunity House, Inc. was established as a non-profit 501(c)(3)
corporation. By August 1997, we were ready for our first residents. A year
later, a larger house was added that could hold 14 women. In December
1998, another men's house was added. Regretfully in September 1999, the
Board of Directors moved to closed the female facility due to the low volume
of residents and the lack of results it produced. The men were then
transferred into this house from the original house which was vacated. In
January 2001, we ventured out of our local community and into another
county in New Mexico. We operated this facility for men until October 2003
when the Board made the decision to close due to lack of community
support.
By 2003 we were looking for a larger success rate and undertook revamping
our entire Program. We divided it into three phases while extending the
commitment time to 18 months thus becoming a "long-term" facility. We
were already operating two houses in Hobbs, NM and this expansion
required us to purchase a third house. This house was totally for Phase II
residents. Phase II gives the men a chance to try out the new life skills they
have learned in Phase I with the support of the Program and with the
direction of Opportunity House management. Men took up residency in this
house in February 2004 and since 2006, we have noticed an increase in our
success rate of about 50%. Also in 2004, we purchased a building at 206
North Turner St. in downtown Hobbs to serve as our Administration
Building. Here we have our Admin. Offices, Private Counseling Office, Training
Classes, and Board Meetings. We also hold Open Recovery meetings here
twice a week to accomodate anyone in the community who struggles with
addiction.
In 2009 we enlarged the Phase II part of our Program by purchasing another
house. We now have four houses in the community of Hobbs, New Mexico
with a total bed count of 45.