Before moving into Beacon House two months ago, Ryan and his girlfriend lived in a tent near railroad tracks behind the U-Haul building, sweltering through mosquito-filled summers and shivering through the winter.
Beacon House has become, well, a beacon.
“Getting here has been a blessing,” says, Ryan, 42, a Philadelphia native. “I’ve been able to eat three times a day, sleep peacefully, get showers and clean clothes … I’m very happy we got into this place.”
Until nine years ago, Ryan had what many would call a conventional life. He’d been married with three children, with a roof over his head and food on the table.
Then he started dabbling with heroin at age 33. By age 34, he was using regularly. His wife divorced him and took their children. He did a year in jail and, when he got out, trying to score drugs became a “full-time job.” Now it’s fentanyl or tranq “or whatever’s out there.”
“It’s done a number on my body,” Ryan says. “I don’t blame anyone for what I’m going through, but I want to be able to free myself.”
Ryan learned about Prevention Point six years ago when he started going to the wound care clinic and syringe services program. Before that, he would use the same needle for weeks at a time, sharing it with multiple people. He contracted hepatitis C and dealt with skin abscesses. His partner was twice hospitalized with life-threatening endocarditis. “There were a lot of health problems before the exchange,” he says.
Since moving into Beacon House, Ryan and his girlfriend have started a new conversation: What it would be like to get into recovery, get their own apartment, “live a better life.”
“Our time together has been wrapped in addiction, but we’re talking about it and we want to get clean,” he says.
Still, he’s worried. The only time he’s broken away from drugs successfully was the year he spent in jail. Once released, he began using again within months.
“I doubt myself. I’ve never had the clean time like other people have. They tell me, ‘Oh, I had a clean year and then I relapsed.’ And I tell them, ‘At least you had the year clean,’” Ryan says. “I do want to get there. Since we got to Beacon House, we’re talking a lot about detox and methadone. We are on the road we wanted to get on.”