Odyssey House Louisiana opens new Broad Ave. addiction and behavioral health facility
9th September 2019 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
More than two decades after it became vacant and later struck by fire, the former Bohn Ford structure on Broad Avenue officially became the home of a new, expanded Odyssey House rehabilitation, behavioral health and detox center.
Earlier this month, officials for Odyssey House were joined by representatives from Rhodes Commercial Development and Gulf Coast Housing Partnership at the ribbon-cutting of the new wellness center’s 41,300-square-foot facility at 2700 S. Broad St.
Ed Carlson, chief executive officer of Odyssey House, said the opening of the facility comes at a critical time in New Orleans’ and Louisiana’s fight against addictions and mental illness.
“The new South Broad facility is critical to OHL’s mission because we know how great the need for our services is in New Orleans, and across the entire state,” Carlson said. “This facility directly addresses two enormous burdens to the state: the opioid epidemic and low-cost primary care.”
The $17.5-million development of the new Odyssey House facility at the long-vacant Bohn Ford site took two years to complete through a partnership with Gulf Coast Housing Partnership and Rhodes Commercial Develop-ment, which owns the property.
Kathleen Astorga, co-owner of Rhodes Commercial with four of her siblings, said the new Odyssey facility provides a two-fold benefit, a melding of private interests and public service.
Astorga said the company’s goals for the site were altered with the devastation of Hurricane Katrina – once the storm had passed, Rhodes wanted to do something more than just commercial development.
“Once Katrina hit, our vision ended up shifting,” she said. Astorga said she and Rhodes’ other officials are very pleased with the final result. “This Odyssey House fits in the neighborhood, and it fulfills our mission,” she said. “It provides [the company] with an anchor tenant, and it provides a service to the city.”
The new location on Broad Street will almost double the clinic’s size when the center completes the move from its longtime site on Tonti Street in Treme-Lafitte. In addition to bringing to life a key structure along the Broad Street commercial corridor, the location fits perfectly into Odyssey’s mission, Carlson said.
Situated along a major public transportation hub, the new site links several neighborhoods with populations that need Odyssey’s services, including Broadmoor, Gert Town, Hoffman Triangle and Zion City, Carlson said. He added that location is frequently a crucial factor for addiction, detox and community mental health treatment centers.
“The former Bohn Ford center is ideal for OHL in so many ways,” Carlson said. “Firstly, it is centrally located in an important commercial thoroughfare that connects multiple neighborhoods. Access to services is key and this location, on a major thoroughfare and on the public transportation line, is perfectly situated.”
The South Broad site remains close to Odyssey’s other locations on Tonti Street and Washington Avenue, where OHL’s medically supported detox center is situated.
The South Broad structure, which was sold by the Bohn family in 1996 after decades of operation as a car dealership, was gutted by fire in 2002, leaving just the basic framework of the building intact, a fact that made the site perfect for Odyssey’s expanded vision, Carlson said. He added that the size and layout of the Bohn building allowed OHL much leeway and architectural freedom as the wellness center developed the structure.
“The building had been dormant for many years with only the existing shell viable, [so] it was a blank slate,” he said. “OHL tailored the floor plan precisely [to] its unique needs with ample group rooms, service delivery spaces and enough bedrooms for 144 people.”
The opening of the new Odyssey House location will greatly augment to the neighborhood around it, said Bethanie Mangigian, lead social worker for the Broadmoor Improvement Association.
“Considering the new location of Odyssey House, it’s exciting to have more resources for substance abuse and people recovering from addiction,” Mangigian said. “Anytime there’s an increase in those services, we support it.”
Mangigian echoed Carlson’s sentiments, saying that the location of the new OHL site couldn’t be better; she said it’s near one of the city’s busiest public transportation stops, which she said makes the new Odyssey center much more accessible to city residents who don’t have their own transportation or who live in the outer reaches of the city.
Mangigian said the expanded Odyssey site will increase the number of beds available for in-patient addiction treatment in the city; the lack of beds across the city and state has been a crippling factor blocking many in need from receiving treatment.
According to Mangigian, the new Odyssey center will augment the improvement association’s services, which include sliding-fee-scale counseling, case management, a church ministry of homeless residents, mental-health treatment and a food pantry.
Mangigian said Odyssey House’s expanded operations will help fight the opioid addiction crisis gripping the country and gaining a strong foothold in New Orleans.
“It’s a crisis that’s escalated across socioeconomic lines, across age groups, across all demographics,” she said. “This will provide more resources addressing the crisis.”
Carlson said Odyssey’s staff, clients and patients are grateful to both Gulf Coast Housing Partnership and Rhodes Commercial Development, both of which “understood the gap in services for the New Orleans community, believed in OHL’s vision, and worked very hard to make this facility a reality,” he said.
A few steps remain toward completing the shift of the bulk of OHL’s treatment operations from Tonti Street to the new South Broad location. Odyssey is currently in the process of seeking licensing from the Louisiana Department of Health, but officials are hoping for a client move-in date later this month.
Once those steps are completed, Odyssey House will massively expand the city’s capacity for substance-abuse treatment and provide crucial services for New Orleans’ at-risk populations.
“There’s often an intersection between homelessness, substance abuse and poverty,” Mangigian said. “Some shelters are unable to accommodate the need for detox and rehabilitation services. This will help people who are experiencing those things get back on their feet.”
Astorga said New Orleans residents are facing several challenges and crises that need adequate treatment, such as PTSD brought on by storms, addiction and unemployment, and those needs can now be met on a greater scale.
She said the fact that the facility will be open during her company’s 135th year of operation was a blessing.
“It means a lot to us,” she said. “We need behavioral health treatment in this city, and with that [lack of resources] comes all the problems in this city. For this to open at our anniversary is just phenomenal,” Astorga said.
This article originally published in the September 9, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
