COASTAL OBSERVER

One couple’s son died from a fentanyl overdose. A retired nurse used to bail her brother out of jail to get him into rehab. A woman saw her brother and sister struggle with addiction.

They understand the problem that the Damascus House Ministries at Pawleys Island Community Church is trying to cure. 

“We aren’t against the program. We’re against the location,” said Julie Rogers, who lives down the street from a building near the Black River outside Georgetown that the ministry proposed using for a residential care center for men it currently works with at the county jail.

Dozens of her neighbors who turned out for a hearing in June before the Georgetown County Planning Commission said they felt the same way.

So Damascus House withdrew its request, but not in the way that property developers do who want to avoid opposition. Damascus House waited until the start of the hearing, ensuring the neighbors had their chance to speak and hoping that the controversy would draw attention to the need for a residential program for recovering addicts.

Damascus House needed a zoning change for its facility, which would be housed in the former Georgetown Baptist Church off Highway 701. The ministry’s leaders met with the neighbors.

“There’s some obvious misunderstandings about who we were,” said the Rev. Don Williams, senior pastor at Pawleys Island Community Church and chairman of the Damascus House board.

The ministry grew out of sessions he held for men struggling with addiction. The goal was always to create a residential facility. The lack of treatment centers in Georgetown County was cited earlier this year by the county’s Behavioral Health Collaborative, made up of service providers, as a significant roadblock to recovery.

Damascus House adopted a faith-based program from a church in Florida that has worked in the field for over 60 years. It hired two program directors who began working with men in the county jail last year. But the full program of “rescuing, restoring and redeeming” men from substance abuse is 11 months and the average stay of a jail inmate is 17 days, Williams said.

“While the detention center program is great, the God-given goal of having a facility has never changed,” he said.

Georgetown Baptist offered to give its 1.3-acre church property to Damascus House after three weeks of prayer, said Danny Owens, a church member. “We think it’s a great thing.”

The gift was a starting point for Damascus House.

“The facility would never be able to hold the number of men we have the vision for. It’d be a great place to begin the residential program so that we could transfer to another facility,” Williams said.

But even a small-scale facility raised concerns among nearby residents, who said the recovering addicts with criminal backgrounds would pose a safety threat. They also questioned Damascus House’s plans for safety at the facility.

“The overwhelming sentiment of this group is that Georgetown County needs this facility, that it doesn’t need to be in their, or probably anybody else’s, neighborhood,” Williams said.

Damascus House has looked at other property, said Jim Coggin, the program’s president.

“They’re still viable, but there’s a lot of zeros in the price tag,” he said.

Williams hoped that news of the rezoning would prompt someone to donate other property to Damascus House or just donate to the effort.

“This facility will exist somewhere, somewhere in Georgetown County,” Williams said. “We need everyone’s help to make it happen.”