Personal Story Behind Push for Recovery Housing

Temple University’s Housing and Residential Life has been making many changes to create a more inclusive environment. Now those faced with addiction and the road to recovery have a voice advocating for a clean living environment to make their journey a little less difficult.

George Basile, the outgoing Junior Class Representative for Temple Student Parliament, was inspired by his father’s recovery to create a safe and healthy environment for students facing similar circumstances.

The full resolution that passed by Parliament in favor of Recovery Housing.
The full resolution that passed by Parliament in favor of Recovery Housing.

“This initiative also does have personal salience for myself, because my father is in his own recovery,” said Basile when Temple Update sat down with him to discuss the initiative before the Parliament put it to a vote. Basile said that other colleges and universities had similar housing opportunities to the one he proposed. According to the New York Times, the earliest recovery housing on a college campus was said to begin at Rutgers University in 1988.

A source tells Temple Update that an exploratory committee is in the works to research the feasibility of a recovery housing option for Temple. We reached out to Housing and Residential Life Director Kevin Williams for comment, but did not receive a response.

Although the initiative was approved by student government, Basile knows there is still work to be done. And although he is not seeking reelection for the Senior Class seat, Basile plans to work with the new administration to follow through with the proposal.

“What we’ve seen relative to other housing options being implemented, such as the gender inclusive housing, it took roughly four to five years to implement something like that. My expectation is that administration is going to be proactive when it comes to this issue because we do have an opioid epidemic and crisis knocking on our back door, but I also understand that within reason, administration is going to explore avenues to make sure we do this right the first time instead of rushing anything.”

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