At a residential substance abuse treatment center like Reno’s The Empowerment Center (TEC), clients and staff devote themselves completely to the hard work of turning around lives devastated by drugs and alcohol. Graduation from TEC’s intensive five-month recovery program is a tremendous accomplishment, but one that can easily be undone when graduates bump up against another big challenge: finding a safe, affordable place to call home in an area where rents have doubled in the last 10 years.

"We pride ourselves on providing better lives for the individuals we serve, strive to make our community better, and are proud stewards of the financial support, including our AHP grant, that has made all of this possible," said Roxanne DCarlo, Executive Director, The Empowerment Center.

TEC’s Marvel Way Apartments is designed as an alternative to having individuals in recovery, and their families, leave residential or transitional housing only to return to the toxic environments where alcohol, drug abuse, and domestic violence were part of their daily lives. Modeled after successful recovery-focused affordable housing projects in other states, it’s the first in Nevada to provide long-term permanent housing with critical support services delivered onsite, including 12-Step meetings, job training, life skills coaching, and referrals to local service organizations.

Richard Brown is TEC’s director of housing services and a source of support for living sober. “No one gets in here until they meet with me,” Richard says. “They have to test for me, and if it’s not negative, I refer them to a program where they can get clean, and then they can come back and reapply.” Richard comes from his own recovery background; he understands the particular challenges many of the Marvel Way tenants are experiencing. Rule following, he notes, is not necessarily part of the skill set people arrive with, and there are some who are receiving a key to their own front door for the first time in their life. “If you’re 40 or 50 years old, how do you do that?”

Sarah

Sarah Berdu, 40, had eight years of sobriety before a domestic violence situation led her back to drinking as a trauma response. Then “I went to detox and got free,” Sarah shares. After completing TEC’s residential program and regaining her lost sobriety, “I was endlessly looking for a place to live and thought I might have to go to a shelter without my pets,” she says. But she was determined to break her destructive old patterns. She wanted to be around people who would build her confidence and to be part of a community that she could trust. “I go to the office, and Richard is there,” she says, “It’s really cool to see his journey, he gets it.”

Sarah appreciates how responsive TEC is to the needs and input of residents. “They’re open to hearing us, like about what’s working and not working,” she explains. The fact that this is a new community and a new model for permanent sober living means everyone involved has a lot to learn to make it work. “I’m happy to be part of the learning curve,” Sarah says. “You can influence what happens, and the next people will have it a little bit easier.”

She is grateful for the opportunity she now has to be involved in the Marvel Way community. “The love that went into creating this place, it’s amazing,” she says, “There’s nothing like it.” And she’s feeling fulfilled as she sorts through belongings that she doesn’t need anymore, giving clothes and extra household items to women who have less. “It’s where my heart really is and maybe where my next career move could be,” she says. “Anything that has to do with making sure people have their basic needs met.”

Heather

“I started using pretty young, 13, with weed, and from there it was gradual, with more drinking and pills,” Heather says. “It was when I started using meth, when I was about 30, that my life went off a cliff.” She reached out for help when she realized that she was creating a very bad situation for her daughters, Lola and Lily. “I told my judge that I was stuck, that I didn’t know how to get out of my addiction.”

A counselor told her that she could get her into a program, that she would get her a bed. She didn’t tell her ex-partner that she was leaving, but he found out when she asked a family member to look after her kids while she was in treatment. Her-ex tried to prevent her from leaving, but Heather was determined, sending her girls to live with her aunt in California as she started on her recovery journey. She took a deep dive into who she was as a person, learning that what she went through wasn’t her fault and how to recognize red flags to not end up rock bottom in another bad relationship.

Heather got her girls, now ages four and two, back while completing a residential treatment program run by CrossRoads. When she heard that an affordable apartment complex for people in recovery was being built she felt goosebumps all over her body. “I didn’t care where it was, Heather says. “I knew that’s where I wanted to be, this is where my life is taking me.” The new community offered an opportunity to start fresh. “My girls will love it, we’ll have our own place.” So she was one of the first people to apply, in person, for an apartment at Marvel Way, sight unseen.

“I’m working on my confidence because I don’t want my girls to ever be in the situation I was in,” she continues. “They love it here, and I’m not going to be afraid to talk to them about addiction and about how they should expect to be treated and loved.” Every morning, Lola and Lila want to stop to see Richard, and when Heather picks them up from school, four-year old Lola announces she’s ready to get home and “just relax.”

Heather’s dad taught her welding when she was young. She’s gone back to school, at Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC) just across the road, and is working in the welding shop as instructor-apprentice on her way to a career as a welding instructor. She’s excited that as an instructor she’ll have the same school hours as her daughters. “Everything is working out great,” she says. “I can do this.”

Noelle

Noelle's daughter, Lark, just graduated from kindergarten; she and her younger brother, Van, are looking forward to a summer full of swimming. Noelle has been sober for five years, driven to get clean by finding purpose in being a mom. She is a third of the way through a Master’s of Social Work program. Therapy that helped her turn her life around sparked her interest in becoming a therapist. “I didn’t have an associate’s degree yet, so I went to TMCC,” she relates. “I had a lot of support, and before I knew it I had my bachelors’ degree, and now I’m in the master’s program. It wasn’t handed to me, but it shows what it means to give people a chance.”

Living at Marvel Way is what Noelle believes makes it possible to be in school. “And it gives me a big leg up because I was paying $1,700 for something not nearly as nice.” Her rent for a two-bedroom apartment at Marvel Way is only $630. And while she’s in school, she’s cleaning houses on the side, taking advantage of the times when Lark and Van are with their father or their grandparents. “I try to really hustle when they’re not here.”

Even more than the cost savings, what makes Marvel Way the right place for Noelle is the chance to be part of a community of people who have been where she’s been and are now changing their lives for the better. Her neighbors are kind to her kids, and protective of them. “This is our safe place. Everyone here is their friend, and someone they can trust,” she says. And while she hasn’t told her children much about her own story yet, Noelle wants her children to perceive that recovery is about resilience, as opposed to something shameful. “Seeing people who are doing their best – that’s a value I want them to see.”

Adding to Housing Supply in Nevada 

Nevada’s housing shortage continues to be one of the most severe in the country, and the state continues to be last when it comes to availability of housing for those earning 30% or less of the area median income in their community. Nevada also tops the list for highest percentage of extremely low-income households who are severely cost burdened, meaning the household spends more than 50% of its income on housing costs, including utilities, while 20% of Nevada renter households are classified as extremely low-income.

The Marvel Way project received a $420,000 Affordable Housing Program (AHP) grant in 2020 through FHLBank San Francisco member Pacific Premier Bank. “We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with TEC to help recovering individuals and their families through affordable housing initiatives,” said Sherri Scott, Senior EVP and Chief ESG & Corporate Responsibility Officer at Pacific Premier Bank.

All of the project’s 42 units are restricted to households earning up to 50% AMI, although some unit rents are set low enough to be affordable to those earning closer to 30% AMI. Nine units are also reserved for formerly unhoused individuals and their families and are subsidized with rental vouchers provided by the Reno Housing Authority.