By Maria Clark
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
Odyssey House Louisiana announced Monday morning (Feb. 19) that it will add 100-beds for short-term (28 days) addiction treatment and 50 beds for patients who are detoxing, once renovation of a new facility at 2700 South Broad Street is complete.
As one of four in-patient addiction treatment programs in New Orleans, the expansion will help Odyssey House increase capacity in long-term substance abuse treatment services and behavioral healthcare services.
Speaking at the groundbreaking of the South Broad Street facility, Gov. John Bel Edwards, Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Mayor-elect Latoya Cantrell and other officials spoke about the growing opioid crisis and its impact in Louisiana.
After the Medicaid expansion in June 2016, state officials pushed for legislation to reduce the number of opioid prescriptions and the number of pills prescribed for Medicaid patients.
Edwards explained that the state has seen some success with these efforts.
Since the Medicaid expansion in June 2016, the number of opioid prescriptions in Louisiana has been reduced by 40.1 percent, Edwards said. The number of pills per prescription for Medicaid patients decreased by more than 25 percent between July 2016 and August 2017, he added.
"From 5.7 million prescriptions in 2013 to 4.9 million prescriptions in 2017," he said. "We have 4.6 million people in the state of Louisiana. Think about that, and we're not the worst in the country. But that's indicative of the problem we have."
Odyssey House partnered with Gulf Coast Housing Partnership and Rhodes Commercial Development to redevelop the 41,300 square foot historic building on South Broad Street. The Rhodes family purchased the building, which was once home to the Bohn Motor Co., in 2005 within days of Hurricane Katrina. Plans to redevelop the building have been stalled until now.
The $14.4 million project is using both New Market Tax Credits and State and Federal Historic Tax Credits to restore the historic building. Financing was also provided by the Louisiana Office of Community Development, the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, and the Reinvestment Fund.
For a short period of time, the facility on Broad Street will host Odyssey House's short-term and long-term adult residential programs, while their main location at 1125 N. Tonti Street undergoes renovations.
Once the renovations at that location are complete, Odyssey House will move its 126-bed Long-Term (six months plus) Intensive Adult Residential and Community Health Center back to the Tonti location.
The Broad facility will retain a 100-bed short-term (28-day) Adult Residential Facility, a 50-bed detox facility, and a satellite community health center. Odyssey House estimates the facility will create 45 new jobs.
In 2016 the number of drug-related deaths surpassed the murder rate for the first time in New Orleans history. The Orleans Parish Coroner's office is expected to release statistics for 2017 at the beginning of March.
In 2016, the city had 211 deaths from drug overdoses, up from 92 deaths in 2015.
"It is a public health emergency," Edwards said. "I appreciate President Trump declaring this a public health emergency. I am pleased that Congress has finally appropriated some money to make sure that we can win this fight. Because it is critical here in Louisiana.
