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Program Description

Fessenden House provides supportive housing to men in recovery from severe alcohol and/or drug addiction. The facility occupies a former convent on the grounds of a Roman Catholic Church in Yonkers, New York. It includes three common rooms, a dining room, two kitchens, a chapel seating approximately thirty, a laundry room, nine resident bedrooms, two bedrooms for live-in staff, and storage and utility rooms. The facility has been filled to capacity since April of 1998 and the waiting list currently has seventeen names on it that are less than a month old. The facility operates twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

All residents are referred to Fessenden House from in-patient or outpatient alcohol and drug rehabilitation programs located in the lower Hudson Valley, New York City, Long Island and northern New Jersey. Prospective residents are also referred by city and county courts and by substance abuse programs operating in various correctional institutions in New York State. Applicants to the House must be at least thirty days clean and sober and committed to pursuing recovery. New residents are required to attend ninety meetings in ninety days in the twelve step program(s) appropriate to their situation and at least three meetings a week thereafter. All residents are required to enroll in an outpatient or day-treatment rehabilitation program that includes individual and group counseling sessions and random drug and alcohol screenings. There are several programs with which Fessenden House is associated and the staff makes the choice of which program is most appropriate for a given resident in consultation with the resident’s counselor, the resident himself and with court officers or law enforcement officials as necessary. Proof of drug or alcohol use is grounds for immediate dismissal from the House. There is no set time limit for residence at Fessenden House as some persons may need a supportive living environment such as Fessenden House for only a short time while others may need considerably more time.

All residents and staff have dinner together every night. All residents have daily chores and assist in food shopping, preparing dinner and dinner clean up. Residents also assist in large-scale maintenance projects such as painting, landscaping, etc.

Residents are ask to contribute $350 per month to stay at the House. Included in this is a private furnished bedroom with access to all common areas, local phone service and cable television. Most residents pay their contribution using benefits procured through the Westchester County Department of Social Services or the Social Security Administration. Food is provided by donations from individuals and institutions. Residents and staff also contribute to the House food budget according to their ability.

Fessenden House accepts men as residents regardless of their religious tradition and upbringing or their current religious practice. No resident is required to participate in any of the religious activities of the House.

Fessenden House has proven to be particularly successful with men that are hard to place in other supportive living environments due to medical problems, psychiatric disorders or a history of criminal activity.

Fessenden House provides a sober, disciplined and safe place to live supportive to men in recovery from serious addiction. The House is relatively small, allowing each resident to receive plenty of personal attention from the staff and from each other. This also helps prevent the house from having the atmosphere of an institution, and this is supported through the common life of the House, which includes meals together, working together, and relaxing together. The staff members live in the house with the residents and share their lives as a whole with them, not just time allotted to "work." Fessenden House is a home, in the truest sense of the word.