Recovery program moves out of center

By Jen Colletta
PGN Staff Writer
© 2008 Philadelphia Gay News

The umbrella organization that oversaw the five recovery programs operating out of the William Way Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center is closing its doors, but several of the programs will continue to operate through a new reorganization agreement with the center.

Recovery Clubhouse moved into the center about 10 years ago. The clubhouse is one of 15 groups that rents space in the center but operates independently.

The clubhouse rented a two-room, 750-square-foot space on the second floor of the center for nearly $950 per month — rent that had been escalating about 4 percent per year, according to the group’s acting president/treasurer, Dino Nazzaro.

’Dolph Ward Goldenburg, executive director of the center, said the organization signed a 12-month lease agreement in February, but a few months later requested that the rent be reduced by more than 20 percent.

“The center is strongly committed to being a safe space for LGBT people in recovery, but we’re not in a position to decrease by 20 percent all of our tenants’ rent,” Goldenburg said. “If we did it for one organization, we’d have to do it for all of them.”

Goldenburg noted that each organization’s rent is fixed according to the square footage that each group uses.

In accordance with most recovery programs, RCH does not accept any outside donations for its operation. In order to pay the rent each month, members would pass around a collection basket at each meeting, which Nazzaro said would net anywhere from $5-$35.

Nazzaro added that RCH was asked to pay at least $600 a year for utilities such as heating and air conditioning, which he said often were not functioning properly for the groups’ meetings.

Goldenburg said the center attempted to work with RCH to accommodate the group’s financial needs by offering three options: a smaller space in the building that would accommodate the largest RCH meeting at a rate almost 45-percent less than what it was paying; for the programs to be incorporated into an official center recovery program in a smaller space; or for RCH to end the lease without any financial penalties.

Nazzaro said, however, that the other rooms available did not offer a kitchen, running water or a game room like RCH’s current space did, and the group started looking for an alternative location. RCH did find one in another part of the city, but Nazzaro said most of the groups’ members did not want to make the move.

RCH representatives scheduled Aug. 2 as move-out day, but because four of the five recovery programs chose to take the center up on its second offer — becoming a program of the center in a smaller space — RCH will leave behind the majority of its belongings, such as a television and refrigerator, as well as program resources for the groups to use.

The programs will be independent of one another and have control over their own operation, but each will conduct meetings in the shared Recovery Room, a 500-square-foot space on the second floor that will be available for all 12-step programs, which will all contribute to the rent.

“The decision to create this Recovery Room demonstrates the center’s strong commitment to having a safe space for 12-step groups that welcome the LGBT community,” Goldenburg said.

Nazzaro said RCH will store the balance of its funds in escrow while the group looks for a permanent clubhouse location. While he said he wishes the center and its new Recovery Room luck, he added it wasn’t the right fit for RCH.

“When you walk into other community centers around the country, there are pool tables, ping-pong tables and art done by local kids; here the art on the wall is $2,000 or $10,000 and classical music is playing,” he said. “We just thought this is not a community center as much as it is a business leasing space to different companies. This isn’t William Way’s fault; we’re just trying to get back the real feeling of a clubhouse.”

Jen Colletta can be reached at jen@epgn.com.