Our History

Leonard and Mike presented their plan for a sobering center in Houston to the city council, finding champions in Mayor Annise Parker and Councilman Ed Gonzalez. Their efforts paid off when, in a near-unanimous vote, councilmembers approved their proposal and created the Houston Recovery Center. Houston was one step closer to relieving the strain of public intoxication on the criminal justice and public health systems.

What was once a nondescript warehouse owned by Star of Hope Mission reopened as the Houston Recovery Center, with Mayor Parker, Councilman Gonzalez, and Police Chief Charles McClelland joining the ribbon cutting ceremony. Initially available only for HPD Special Operations, the Houston Recovery Center opened its doors for all HPD officers within a few short months and later to all law enforcement agencies in Houston.

The goal of the Houston Recovery Center is to fill the gaps in recovery services for people in need, and clients of the sobering center often face daunting needs: homelessness, mental health issues, criminal justice involvement, and frequent emergency room use, in addition to substance use. Partnering with the Houston Health Department allowed us to debut Partners in Recovery, a unique substance use recovery program combining peer support and clinical case management, personalized for our clients facing these obstacles. We also broadened the reach of the sobering center, accepting clients from other law enforcement agencies, other community sources, and walk-ins.

Partners in Recovery saw its first major expansion: a criminal justice in-reach program with a Houston Recovery Center case manager stationed inside Houston’s jail and courtrooms to screen and refer potential Partners in Recovery clients, giving some of the most vulnerable people with substance use issues immediate seamless access to recovery resources when they reenter society.

A mass overdose of 16 people in Hermann Park due to a synthetic drug known as Kush spurred the creation of the Public Intoxication Transport team, a collaboration between the Mayor of Houston, the Houston Recovery Center, and the Downtown, Midtown, and Near Northside Management Districts. The team pairs emergency medical technicians with peer recovery specialists to deliver rapid-response on-the-street screening and triage of people who are publicly intoxicated in high-risk neighborhoods. We also expanded Partners in Recovery, devoting a peer recovery specialist to pre-recovery engagement, building relationships and recovery readiness by providing health care, housing, and other assistance to clients who frequently use the sobering center and who are not yet ready for recovery.

In partnership with the Harris County Courts, we expanded our criminal justice in-reach program into the newly established Reintegration Court, with a team of peer recovery specialists working directly with the court to provide recovery coaching for defendants with low-level substance-related offenses.