STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

The Advocates has long provided a place for women who are in between residences for one reason or another.

But there’s no place for men in the Wood River Valley who need a temporary place to live as they transition back into society following jail or rehabilitation for drug or alcohol abuse.

Sonya Wilander wants to change that.

She’s working with the City of Hailey to open a transitional home for men in a residential/business neighborhood that would be called Men’s Second Chance Living. And, already, others are rallying to the cause.

A donor has volunteered to purchase a home and lease it to the program for a dollar a year or, perhaps, even gift it outright. The philanthropic 100 Men Who Care just donated $9,500 to furnish the home. And The Advocates has offered to help the residents learn life skills.

“In working with the Blaine County Adult Drug Court, I came to realize that there’s nowhere for men to get help. And many struggle to find housing to rent,” said Wilander, the volunteer executive director of Men’s Second Chance Living.

This isn’t Wilander’s first attempt to do something of this sort.

After moving here 18 years ago from New York with her tennis champion husband Mats and their four children, the former model was involved in an effort to open a place for home for juveniles who had run away from home or gotten kicked out. The home, dubbed Reset, would have given them a place to stay while participating in counseling with their families.

But it turned out that there was not the need. And the costs of insurance for liability when children are involved is astronomical, said Wilander.

That’s not the case with an adult home like she’s trying to set up now, she said.

Wilander can’t provide hard numbers because no one’s currently keeping track. But she knows from experience working with the Blaine County Adult Drug Court, which started in 2004 to offer non-violent offenders an alternative to jail, that many men struggle to find a place to live following release from jail or treatment.

About a quarter of the 75 men on felony probation got in trouble because of alcohol or drug use. And they can’t live in a house with alcohol, drugs or firearms, which makes it difficult to get a roommate in a state like Idaho with so much hunting.

“I put the numbers together on this and figured out a sober house it could work,” she said. “And one of the defense attorneys told me they would support this.”

Under Wilander’s plan, non-violent men would pay what rent they can with private donations helping to sustain cover the rest of cost of a house manager and maintenance. Often, sober houses can avail themselves of short-term funding for such clients.

The Idaho Department of Corrections also sometimes helps provide housing for men out of jail until they get on their feet.

The men would live together as a family and share chores such as gardening, snow blowing, vacuuming and painting. They would participate in two therapy groups and one individual counseling session a week. They would be able to avail themselves of a variety of treatments, including EMDR, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing designed to alleviate the distress of traumatic memories.

And they would participate in yoga and meditation classes, basketball and other recreational pursuits.

The caretaker would check in on things every day and be a liaison should a neighbor complain about something like the music being too loud.

“With the opioid epidemic, there’s becoming a huge need for homes like these. Drug abusers have a 60 percent better chance of success if they go to a sober living house after rehabilitation and treatment,” said Wilander, who is currently writing a policy and procedure handbook for residents.

Wilander has visited several not-for-profit and for-profit homes in Boise, all of which are in residential areas.

Wilander said she realizes that having such a home in one’s neighborhood can make people nervous. But it shouldn’t, she said, as the men who live in the homes encompass every socio-economic background—there’s even a mansion in Connecticut catering to Wall Street employees for $14,000 a month.

“One man told me he had vowed to fight the home in his neighborhood with every penny he had. Now he and his wife often give gifts of food to the men and regularly invite them to their Catholic church,” she said. “People are realizing with the opioid epidemic that those who get hooked following surgery could be your mother or brother.

“We will operate by the good neighbor policy,” she added. “If a neighbor says, ‘Move your car,’ our residents will be instructed to do so immediately.”

Wilander says she would like to have as much new furniture as possible because she believes men will be more apt to respect and take care of it.

Marty Lyon who founded 100 Men Who Care says he’s excited that the men who participate in the philanthropic effort voted to support the Men’s Second Chance Living.

“I believe this is the first time 100 Men Who Care has assisted a new startup in the Wood River Valley,” he said. “ ‘Men helping men”—it has a nice ring to it.”

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

Contact Sonya Wilander at swilander@gmail.com.