Why Salvation Army is shuttering some ‘last chance’ rehab centers

Michael Oliver describes the slow-motion collapse of his life from heroin addiction with dark humor. “Looking back,” he says, “it’s pretty much like a country song.”

He lost his home, his job, and his car. He stole from family, friends, and strangers. He spent brief stints behind bars and long stretches on the streets. Over the years, he tried to detox a time or two and made countless promises to himself and others to get clean. Heroin always won.

The soundtrack of misery stopped last year as Mr. Oliver faced a return to jail on home invasion and burglary charges. Seeking to show the court he could change, he enrolled in a recovery program at a Salvation Army adult rehabilitation center in Southern California.

Most residential treatment facilities for drug and alcohol addiction limit stays to 15 to 30 days. The Salvation Army’s six-month program provides a chance for participants to decelerate for long enough to rediscover a purpose greater than chasing the next high.

“The process builds your character,” says Mr. Oliver, who “graduated” from the center in February. He now works as a residential manager at another Salvation Army facility in the region while he repairs bonds with loved ones. “You can remember who you were before drugs took over everything.”

But finding a long-term treatment program has grown more difficult in recent months with the closing of several Salvation Army rehab centers across the country. The moves come as the organization retrenches and shuts down dozens of its signature thrift stores, which generate most of the funding for its rehab facilities and other programs.

Officials with the Christian charity attribute the restructuring to rising operating expenses and slumping thrift shop revenues. In the West, the Salvation Army has closed rehab centers in Portland, Oregon; Sacramento, California; and Tucson, Arizona. The loss of the facilities occurs as the need for addiction treatment remains high: federal data show that only 3.7 million out of 21 million people with a substance use disorder received care last year.

The opioid epidemic, the resurgence of methamphetamine use, and the persistence of alcohol abuse have exposed a national shortage of residential treatment programs that last beyond 30 days. Some 80% of the country’s recovery facilities lack extended inpatient services in large part because of surging health care costs. The scarcity of such programs concerns George Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.