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Columbia University Teams With TriBeCa Halfway House to Help Troubled Students

By Julie Shapiro | March 16, 2011 5:49pm | Updated on March 17, 2011 7:31am
Hazelden bought the six-story building at 283 W. Broadway to convert it into a sober house for college students. Columbia University will help provide treatment to the students.
Hazelden bought the six-story building at 283 W. Broadway to convert it into a sober house for college students. Columbia University will help provide treatment to the students.
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DNAinfo/Julie Shapiro

By Julie Shapiro

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

TRIBECA — A new halfway house coming to TriBeCa this summer is teaming up with Columbia University to treat college students struggling with addiction.

Columbia's Department of Psychiatry will provide mental health and substance abuse treatment to the 30 young adults who will live in the sober house, announced  the Hazelden nonprofit group which is running the facility.

Jon Morgenstern, Columbia's director of addiction treatment, called the partnership an "ideal fit." Columbia already offers comprehensive outpatient treatments through its College Student Program, but the university does not have a recovery house, Morgenstern said.

The sober house will serve students from schools throughout the region, not just those who are enrolled at Columbia, Hazelden said.

Hazelden also announced Wednesday that the six-story halfway house building at 283 West Broadway, just south of Canal Street, will be known as Tribeca Twelve, presumably a reference to the 12-step recovery program.

Tribeca Twelve will serve students ages 18 to 29 who are either attending college or are preparing to return. The male and female residents will live in furnished apartments for six to 12 months and will receive outpatient treatment during their stay.

Several TriBeCa neighbors expressed concerns about the facility at a public meeting last month, but no one opposed it.

The surrounding area is full of clubs and bars, including a couple on the same block as the halfway house. The Tribeca Twelve residents will be subject to periodic drug testing, Hazelden said this week.

"The biggest thing students will gain from this program is that we're not putting them in a bubble," Mark Mishek, CEO of Hazelden, said in a statement. "The recovery house is located right in the heart of TriBeCa and the goal is teaching young adults how to live a lifestyle of recovery."