![]() In partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, MASH is now the state’s authority on certifying sober homes. So operators created the non-profit Massachusetts Alliance for Sober Housing (MASH). Sober homes are not state-regulated because they don’t provide medical treatment, but many saw the need to set some standards. If they're going to do it, they've got to do it right," Sheehan said. “I don't think just anybody can open a sober house. Another distinction – there aren't any restrictions on who can open a sober house. Tenants in both halfway houses and sober houses pay to live there. Sober houses are often conflated with halfway houses, but the main distinction is that sober houses do not provide treatment, as they’re often the last step for someone coming out of rehab. and you see, if I'm living with someone who I see struggle through situations during the day, there's also that support system,” Trulby said. “If you're living with like-minded people who have that type of lifestyle and working on their recovery, and working on getting stable. If they're going to do it, they've got to do it right. ![]() Mel Trulby, the operations manager of Bennington House, says living in a home with peer-to-peer support increases the odds of staying sober. He's so passionate about their effectiveness that he has made a career out of managing them, overseeing five other sober homes in Quincy. Sheehan, a recovering addict himself, credits sober homes for his survival. You have to slowly, gradually get into it and be prepared.” “You can't go from a solid program to just back on your own because it turns into chaos for you,” said Josh Silva Sheehan, operations director of the Bennington House. While residents didn’t want to be interviewed, the managers were anxious to talk about how this kind of setting is essential to transitioning back into society and staying sober. Attending several AA or NA meetings a week, doing chores, taking drugs tests and meeting curfew are mandatory. “We might get future police officers out of this.At the Bennington House, a certified sober home in Quincy, the house rules are prominently placed on the refrigerator. “Next week, we’re going to be taking kids from the DARE program out,” he said. Quincy has an oil terminal, a chemical plant, a “massive ferry system,” a natural gas terminal and a power plant that all need security, Gillan said, which convinced federal officials to award the city $2 million to buy and equip a new boat two years ago. “The mayor expects the Marine unit to strike an appropriate balance between its duties and community policing,” he said. “Every day we don’t have an officer there, we are giving up ground.”Ĭhristopher Walker, a spokesman for Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch, said the mayor will not tolerate personal use of the boats, but Koch is confident police deploy them responsibly. Palmucci said the city’s community policing program has worked wonders in his Brewers Corner neighborhood, and he wants to sustain that progress. “This is just a maritime extension of that program,” he said. Gillan said the tours - which he first said happen twice a week and later said happen twice a month - are no different from when police take civilians on patrol in cruisers. “I don’t know if you consider that waste.” “If a ward councilor has a group of people they want taken out on the police boat, we do that,” Gillan said. Two officers oversee each 90-minute boat ride, he said, with groups that include not only Cub Scouts, disabled veterans and the elderly, but also passengers sent their way by mun-icipal officials. The boat is fueled at a city depot and Gillan defended the “tours” as worthwhile outreach. Gillan said his officers only take tours out as their duties permit. Quincy cops said they need ocean patrol boats to secure the city’s port.
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