Recovery Center One Step Closer To Sober ‘Oxford House’ In Moscow

Annaleah Vallee had many attempts at sobriety before she finally succeeded.

Growing up, Vallee’s life was unstable, with a mother who struggled with her own addiction, and father who died when she was ten. She bounced between foster care and the Nez Perce Children’s homes, and says she was introduced to drugs and alcohol as a teenager.

Vallee: “It was pretty much always around from childhood, the lifestyle itself. My Mom and Dad drank and used drugs. So it’s from the time that I was a kid.” 

Eventually she started using meth. After an arrest and jail time in 2018, Vallee says she was desperate to get clean. She had a son who was 7 at the time.

When she got out of jail, Vallee enrolled in outpatient treatment. During her time there, she told one of the women in her group that she had nowhere to stay. That woman offered an opening at her house in Lewiston.

That house, Vallee would learn, was an Oxford house — a type of sober group living.

Unlike other sober houses, Oxford houses are maintained entirely by their residents. New members have to be voted in with at least 80% approval by current members, and are expected to contribute financially, and to household duties. They can be voted out if they’re found to be, or suspected of, using drugs.

Vallee stayed in the Oxford house for a year and a half, and is three years and four months sober today. She has regular visitations with her son, who lives with his grandparents. She’s also Idaho’s state outreach worker for Oxford House, which she credits for helping her reach long term sobriety.

Idaho Oxford houses have an 87% abstinence rate, which is similar to the national average for the program. 

That’s why Darrell Kiem, director of the Latah Recovery Center, says his organization wants to add more.

The center, which provides recovery resources and coaching, received two hundred thousand dollars from the Latah County Commissioners in February to purchase a house.

Kiem says the board is hoping for the same amount from Moscow’s city council, but felt they couldn’t wait any longer. Last week, the owners of a property in northeast Moscow accepted their offer of four hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

Kiem: “We’re taking out a mortgage and dipping into our reserves to make it happen and hoping that the city comes through with at least some money so that we can replenish our reserves a little bit, maybe set some of that money aside for working on that on the house.”

Kiem says the center hopes to close on the deal by May. If that happens, up to ten people could live there as soon as June.

The first Oxford house would be a men’s facility, with plans for a women’s Oxford house in the future.

This report is made possible by the Lewis-Clark Valley Healthcare Foundation in partnership with NWPB, the Lewiston Tribune, and the Moscow-Pullman Daily news. This report was produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.