NIMBY concerns stall plans for addiction treatment center in Robeson County

After receiving millions of dollars in state funding to address the opioid crisis, a nonprofit organization in Robeson County is hitting a roadblock. County commissioners blocked a rezoning petition to convert a nursing home into a drug rehabilitation facility.

Commissioners voted 7-1 Monday to block the rezoning of the facility in Parkton.

"We got the funds from the state to make a difference here and the first step to that is opening a site in the county," said Oryan Lowry, the executive director of Hope Alive, the group seeking the rezoning.

Commissioners opposed the project after 26 residents signed a petition presented in the meeting by the county's director of planning and inspections, Dixon Ivey Jr. Inquiries to Ivey as well as to other county officials were sent to the county attorney.

David Edge was the lone commissioner to show support for the project. He told WRAL News that Hope Alive is expected to sue the county, challenging the vote. Lowry said Hope Alive is considering all options.

Edge said he is in support of rezoning the site into a rehab facility because the county is in need of it and thinks other commissioners voted against the interest of their constituents.

"A group of people got together and signed a petition, and I think that's a poor decision-making reason," Edge said. "How about the other 10- or 20,000 who live around there and know there's a problem and need to have this [site] moving forward."

Danny Britt, the state senator who represents Robeson County, agrees that the rehab center should not go in a residential area.

"There is a great need for the program, which is why I supported the funding, but the location should not go in an area that is against the wishes of the residents who live in that community," Britt said.

WRAL surveyed several Robeson County residents about the facility.

"If I had a kid who was on drugs, you could put that facility in my front yard and I wouldn't care if it got him the help he needs," said Mark Cummings from Pembroke.

Cummings was an outlier. Most of the people we spoke with agree that the county is in need of a drug rehab. But when asked if they'd approve of one in their neighborhood, they hesitated and reconsidered.

The former nursing home that Hope Alive purchased is in a residential community along Parkton Tobermory Road. That's where Donnell Jacobs lives. He didn't attend the commissioners' meeting but is one of the people who put his name on the petition. He thinks it's problematic to put a drug rehabilitation facility in that area.

"They’re not going to keep them in there," Jacobs said. "They're going to be walking up and down the street so the people are concerned. We don’t want it."

Jacobs says Hope Alive, which has ties to a church based in Lumberton, should build the facility in Lumberton.

"They don't want to put it at their house," said Jacobs. "Let them take it to their community."

"There's no perfect place for this in Robeson County," Lowry said.

Lowry says the organization researched different options including buying land and building a rehab on it. But, according to the executive director, that would cost millions of dollars and take months, if not years, to complete. Time, he feels, they don't have given how quickly the county's overdoses are adding up.

Robeson has the highest rate of overdose death per residents, DHHS information shows. It's more than two times the state average, according to state data.

In five years, the number of fatal overdoses has spiked, jumping 342% from 26 people dying in 2017 to 115 last year.

In order to get the process rolling, Lowry said, the organization opted to buy the nursing home and refurbish it, creating an 82 bed, in-patient facility for men with substance use disorder. The state is requiring the nonprofit to partner with Robeson Health Care Corporation and Robeson Rural Communities Opioid Response Program to run the rehab.

Hope Alive is a Lumberton-based nonprofit with ties to a church called Greater Hope International. It was founded just over two years ago in July 2020 and received $10 million from the legislature to combat the county's crisis, despite not having any prior experience in that space. After WRAL reported that the church's pastor and founder, Pastor Ronald Barnes, has prior convictions for embezzlement, the state altered the budget, requiring additional oversight for the funds allocated to the group.

Hope Alive has spent at least $1.5 million to purchase two properties, according to county property records.

In addition to the Parkton Tobermory Road spot, they also bought two buildings and more than 70 acres of land on Lonnie Farm Road in Pembroke. Plans for that parcel include a 25-bed sober living community. It's what Lowry described as a "step-down site," a place where people can live after completing in-patient treatment where they'll learn skills that are transferable to the community.

Residents in that part of the county have reached out to WRAL also expressing concerns.

The commissioners are set to hear Hope Alive's rezoning petition for that property on Aug. 15.

As the process for one piece of property has come to a halt, Lowry and others in Robeson fears that the longer the county waits, the more lives they'll lose.

"We have two options," said Carisa Collins-Caddle, a Robeson County harm reductionist who has been in recovery for seven years. "We can have dead people in our backyard from overdoses or we can have treatment facilities in our backyard."