Highland Rivers Behavioral Health, which the state contracts for mental health and disability services in Cobb and other counties, is buying a Cobb County government building for nearly $1.7 million to house its embattled Mothers Making A Change rehabilitation program.
The state investigated Highland Rivers and determined the agency was neglectful after a woman in the program died in 2022. Substandard housing for the women was partly to blame.
“This new site will offer a more secure and supportive environment for women and their children, expanding the program’s impact and ensuring long-term stability,” Highland Rivers CEO Melanie Dallas said in a statement.
Mothers Making A Change serves low-income women with substance use disorders and allows children under the age of 13 to live with them. The program helps women recover from addiction, avoid illegal activity, parent and find jobs and permanent housing, according to Highland Rivers.
The building spans about 21,000 square feet and is in Austell. The purchase also includes almost 3 acres. Highland Rivers currently occupies the building, where the agency runs other nonresidential programs that will be relocated.
“With space to accommodate a 25-bed residential program, dedicated rooms for treatment and group services, an institutional kitchen and ample outdoor recreation space, this site offers everything necessary for healing and recovery under one roof, and within a friendly and supportive community,” Dallas said.
The Cobb County Board of Commissioners earlier this year approved the sales contract, which includes a reimbursement to the county of more than $460,000 in local sales tax funding that has been spent on the building.
Highland Rivers plans to renovate the building to create apartments and will launch a capital campaign to do so, Dallas said. She did not respond to an email asking how much the renovations will cost.
Move-in is likely years away, agency spokesperson Michael Mullet said.
After Kimberly Ellis Loy fatally overdosed in December 2022, the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities found that Highland Rivers failed to follow basic procedures to prevent the overdose and issued a corrective action plan.
Women in the Mothers Making A Change program now live scattered in different buildings of an apartment complex that Highland Rivers does not own or manage, Cobb County Commissioner Monique Sheffield said.
Dallas said in 2023 that the setup makes it difficult to search women before they go to their rooms. The state investigation found that employees searched Loy’s groceries but not her person before she overdosed.
The audit also found the program was understaffed. Dallas did not respond to questions about staffing from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Because of a lack of supervision, some women had abusive partners come to live with them, Sheffield said.
“That was just a little difficult for the management company to monitor,” she said. “They’re not there all times of night.”
Bringing the women under one roof will allow for greater oversight and strengthen relationships between the residents, Sheffield said.
When Sheffield visited the apartments four years ago, she saw holes in sheet rock and smelled mildew. There was also a rodent infestation, she said.
“It was very heartbreaking to see the conditions,” she said. “People deserve better.
“It’s very concerning because you have children that are also living in these units and it just wasn’t a safe and clean environment for the children or for their mothers.”
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