Friendship House Association of American Indians Inc., SF

The Friendship House Healing Center will be a new, four-story, 80 bed residential alcohol and drug treatment center that has been in the planning and development stages since 1997. The new legislation gives the green light to the construction of the Friendship House Healing Center. Groundbreaking took place in September 2002.
More than $6.5 million has been raised for the project from a combination of public and private sources. Funding of the final $4 million in state and city financing is pending, with final approval expected before the end of 2001. The estimated opening of the new facility is anticipated for the end of 2003.

Without this important legislation, the Indian community was facing the possibility of a one-year delay in the construction of the Friendship House Healing Center, according to Helen Waukazoo, executive director.

"We at Friendship House and the entire Bay Area American Indian community are very thankful for the prayers and support of everyone who has been involved in this special project. I have dreamed about this new home for our program for almost 14 years, ever since I became executive director of the Friendship House. As we have worked to develop this project, we have found friends and supporters everywhere, but most especially among the leaders of San Francisco, beginning with Mayor Brown and including the board of supervisors and public health program administrators, community activists, as well as our own people locally and elsewhere. We have everything else we need to begin our long-awaited construction phase, and this law was the final legal hurdle we had to overcome."

Friendship House Association of American Indians of San Francisco is a nonprofit community-based organization founded in San Francisco in 1963 by the Bay Area American Indian community. Friendship House is a nationally recognized model for American Indian culturally appropriate alcohol and drug abuse treatment, prevention and recovery services for American Indian people.

Friendship House operates a 30-bed residential treatment program in San Francisco serving homeless and addicted Indian adults, a residential treatment facility in Oakland for addicted Indian mothers and their children, and outreach and prevention services for youth and women.

Friendship House is the only licensed and certified residential alcohol and drug treatment program for American Indians in the state of California. The 30-bed facility that Friendship House has leased for all these years is cramped and run-down, and much too small to accommodate the huge demand for services and beds for American Indian people seeking treatment for their addictions.

Everyday, Friendship House turns away many people who want to be admitted for treatment. It typically can take several months for a bed to become available for an individual who wants treatment. For those in desperate need of support, the delay is often too much and many fall by the wayside while waiting.

The new Friendship House Healing Center will accommodate up to 80 clients at a time, with segregated floors for women and men. The Friendship House Healing Center will also house all of the Friendship House program staff, and will include space for counseling, group therapy sessions, recreation, and a 3,500 square-foot Great Hall on the ground floor for community events.