In a Craftsman-inspired home in the shadow of the Santa Maria public works yard, people are turning their lives around.

The cheery yellow building is home to A Spiritual Abode, a long-term residential treatment and detox facility for those in the community who are struggling with alcohol or drug addiction.

Everyone who walks through the front door is asked the same simple question by the group's founder Gussie Manos, “Do you really want a new life?”

Manos estimates the organization, which was founded in 2000, has helped hundreds of people to turn their lives around through a structured environment of unity and love.

“By the time you get here, you are so sick you need to be accepted for who you are,” said Manos, who herself is living in recovery.

People find their way into the ASA program through a variety of channels- from word of mouth to court order.

The nonprofit group, which is a state licensed and certified facility, has operated mostly in the shadows with little fanfare, but now the organization is itself turning to the community for support.

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Manos, who has dedicated her time and energy to the organization, is facing her own health crisis which is diverting her attention and she is worried the facility will close due to lack of funds.

ASA offers both treatment beds for people who need at least a year of help and detox beds for people who may only need 30 to 90 days of treatment but can then return to their homes.

The group has two homes. One on West Church Street in Santa Maria can have up to 13 beds total and the other on Solomon Road can have up to 14 beds. However, the Solomon Road house is not being used and is in danger of falling to foreclosure.

Manos and the five-member board of directors are looking for help to refinance the home in addition to monetary support for the program.

ASA's proposed budget for next fiscal year calls for spending $306,000. The group does not receive any funds from the state or county but instead relies on payment from its residents, their friends and family.

However, if someone is unable to pay, Manos said, they are not turned away.

“We've given a lot of charity beds,” Manos said, “for people with no one” to lean on in their time of need.

Treatment in the long-term residential beds is offered on a sliding scale between $1,200 and $2,000 a month. For those on Social Security, the cost is $986 a month, which is below cost, Manos noted.

The facility offers 24-hour staffing and has eight full-time staff members.

Manos started ASA, she recalled, out of necessity because at the time there were no residential treatment facilities in Santa Maria. She was quick to add that there still aren't enough to meet the need.

“I believe I was called to open ASA.”

The group has a strong spiritual component, Manos admitted, since “spiritual principles is what changed my life.”

Another Santa Maria organization that has detox beds is the Good Samaritan Shelter and officials there agree that it is important to have these beds available and they are hard to come by. Good Sam offers 12 detox beds in Santa Maria and six beds in Lompoc.

In addition to spirituality, ASA offers individualized care steeped in the ideals of the 12-step program. Treatment focuses on educating people about the disease of addiction, as well as offering counseling, attending group meetings and providing a sponsor.

Residents are brought into an atmosphere of belonging, which Manos and others involved said help in the healing process.

The group also believes in involving the family of those in treatment so that the family unit can heal as well. ASA officials say that is one aspect that differentiates ASA from other programs.

The group tends to take in many of the people who can fall through the cracks of the system, either because they also suffer depression, anxiety or another mental illness, or because they are not living on the streets.

For the family of Skye Campbell, ASA was a godsend.

After an accident and broken back, he recovered physically, but had become addicted to “illegal painkillers,” said his mother, Anne Campbell, of Santa Barbara.

The family tried for nine years to get Skye into a residential treatment facility in Santa Barbara, but no one would take him due to the combination of his injuries and addiction, she said.

“By the time we came here, and heard about ASA our son was a drowned rat”and unable to function, Campbell said.

But through treatment and the love he found at ASA, he was able to go “back to who he truly was,” she said, noting that he was able to recover and go to college and move on with life before he died in 2006.

The ultimate goal for ASA is giving people the tools to be self-sufficient.

Most clients are in the residential program for one year, although some have stayed as much as 21/2 years.

Residents at ASA suffer from both alcohol and drug addiction. The drug of choice varies. Currently, Manos says they are seeing younger people coming in with problems with OxyContin and Fentantyl lollipops, both potent prescription painkillers.

Manos is confident that the group has a solid foundation of care and now she hoping the community will answer her call for help.

For more information on ASA, visit www.aspiritual

abode.org.

Malia Spencer can be reached at 739-2219 or mspencer@

santamariatimes.com.

March 31, 2008