A Choice for Recovering Addicts Relapse or Homelessness. The Addict. In November 2. Mr. Bush landed at New Lots, just off the end of the No. Brooklyn, in one of the citys most violent neighborhoods. His road to Back on Track was not unusual. Mr. Bush grew up in an abusive home in the Bronx, the son of an alcoholic former Marine and the woman he beat. At 6 or 7, he started drinking alcohol. At 1. 5, he started using cocaine and heroin. At 2. 6, he first tried to quit. A Choice for Recovering Addicts Relapse or Homelessness. Virtually unnoticed and effectively unregulated, a system of housing known as threequarter. How did we end up in a world where Big Gulps are being banned in New York while the welcome mat for potheads is being rolled out in Colorado How is it that cigarette. The Texarkana Gazette is the premier source for local news and sports in Texarkana and the surrounding Arklatex areas. The parents of an American woman freed with her family after five years of captivity say they are elated, but also angry at their sonin law for. At 5. 5, he saw his first psychiatrist. Mr. Bush is friendly with melancholy disposition, an evaluation report from one inpatient center said, noting he had depression. His persona is grieving. Mr. Bush, a former construction worker and handyman, said he learned about Back on Track at Mount Sinai Beth Israels inpatient rehabilitation program. A Back on Track staff member made a presentation for patients and asked if anybody cared to go to this place, he recalled. Soon after, Mr. Bush moved into the lower apartment at 6. New Lots Avenue. He brought with him a few bags and a talisman, a tiny red stuffed bear that came with a Russell Stover chocolate box, which he had bought for himself one Valentines Day to celebrate more than a year of sobriety. The bear, dubbed Russell, was a reminder to Mr. Bush of when he was doing well. He liked to talk over his problems with Russell, because Russell didnt talk back. Back on Track worked hard to snag men like Mr. Bush. Over the years, the companys staff members visited inpatient programs, rehabilitation centers and hospitals, promoting Back on Track as the next step in recovery. They said they would help addicts with housing, treatment and job placement. Tenants said that reputable places had referred them inpatient programs like Arms Acres in Carmel, N. Y., and Samaritan Village in New York nonprofit advocacy groups like the Fortune Society hospitals like Mount Sinai St. Lukes. Six tenants said they were sent by the Bowery Residents Committee, a nonprofit that helps homeless people in Manhattan. Six others were sent by Narco Freedom, the largest Medicaid outpatient substance abuse treatment provider in the city. One man said he was one of 3. Salvation Army in Newark by Mr. Baumblits employees in two vans. It is not clear how much the referring organizations knew about Back on Tracks business model. Officials said in interviews that they recommended three quarter houses because there was nowhere else. Three quarter houses are, in my opinion, the frying pan for people who are in the fire, said Jo. Anne Page, president of the Fortune Society, which helps people coming out of prison. Many of them are firetraps, many are very dangerous and many are brutally exploitive. They crowd people beyond anything they could justify. But they are better than what else is out there, so we use them reluctantly. OPEN Document. Document Reply From Yury Baumblits Lawyer Back on Track gave residents letters to hand to the citys Human Resources Administration, listing the address where the city could send the rent and a photograph of a country estate with a manicured lawn and a stately porch. In reality, bunk beds with dirty, cigarette scarred mattresses blocked windows. Mold stained the ceiling of a bathroom at New Lots. Bureaus were missing drawers. Some homes had broken sinks, holes in the wall and other problems requiring tenants to be creative A clothes hanger could flush a toilet. One resident at another Back on Track house caught two mice with the same trap at the same time, naming them Mickey and Minnie. Others made videos of bed bugs crawling on walls and beds. Each of the six houses at New Lots had two apartments with three bedrooms. The two larger bedrooms each slept four people two others shared a bunk bed in the tiniest room, which had no window. Two apartments housed women. No standing in front of facility, warned a rule sheet in each apartment. No Hanging out in front of the beauty Salon. No Hanging out in front or near Gas Station. You will be discharged if caught near these locations. The tenants rarely complained, not if they wanted to stay. The homes were revolving doors of people kicked out in the middle of the night or early morning. Sheets, pillow, blanket, Mr. Baumblit would tell a house manager, a recovering addict paid 7. That was the signal to strip the bed and pack up a persons belongings in garbage bags. Mr. Aboulafia said residents were not allowed to touch the thermostats because they would likely break from constant changes. He argued that the owners of the buildings were responsible for making sure they met code not Back on Track, which rents the buildings. Back on Tracks lawyers have said in housing court that the company had the authority to evict residents for any reason, at any time, but judges have rejected that argument. Mr. Bush did not want to return to the shelter system, where he had been beaten and robbed. He did not want to move in with his sister, who lived down South. So he did what he was told. Mr. Bush made his sliver of his room his home, setting up a computer out of parts scavenged from the garbage. There, he wrote his thoughts in a file called My Daily Writings. Russell the bear was perched above. Mr. Baumblit first sent Mr. Bush to an outpatient program called New York Service Network. Within five months, he was given a letter that said he was doing well, with consistent negative toxicology results. Medicaid paid out almost 1. Mr. Bush to attend the program an average of four times a week, records show. Joseph La. Barbera, New York Service Networks lawyer, denied that the program paid Mr. Baumblit money for clients. A Pro. Publica article from 2. No one at Back on Track helped Mr. Bush with permanent housing, and by the time he was supposed to graduate from New York Service Network in August 2. Go to GroupAround 4 3. Mr. Baumblit usually left his five bedroom house a block from Brighton Beach, and headed for New Lots in a leased black Mercedes sedan that retails for nearly 1. With his right hand man, Edwin Elie, Mr. Baumblit checked to see if tenants had submitted slips proving they had attended their addiction treatment support groups the previous day. He ordered a house manager to wake those who had not. Go to group, Mr. Baumblit told them. The slips is how he proves people went to group, said a former house manager, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation. In passing, he mentioned, If I dont get my slips, I dont get paid. The former house managers assertion was backed up by other former employees and tenants. Photo. Tenants had to submit slips to Back on Track proving that they had attended treatment support groups. Credit. Ruth FremsonThe New York Times Group was everything. Tenants still recovering from surgery had to go. Even non addicts had to go to group or pay extra. Some said they were told to drink a couple beers on their way to a new program so they would test positive for alcohol. A dozen sober residents of New Lots told The Times they were still forced to go to group, including a minister who had lost his apartment in a flood a chef who was unable to keep his job because he had to go to group almost daily and a dishwasher who said he was sent to Back on Track after complaining about the conditions at his homeless shelter. I dont need those groups, not at all, said the chef, Portland Ramseur, 5. Back on Track after his company failed and he lost his apartment. Its a waste of my time. Its stopping me from getting on my feet. Once tenants finished their treatment program, most were evicted. But a dozen tenants said they had been told, by Mr. Baumblit or Mr. Elie, to relapse. They were the recyclables, constantly shuttling through programs. Either Mr. Ed will come and tell you or Mr. Yury will come and tell you, You know that your time is almost up, and well have to move you out, or put you someplace else. And to get someplace else, you have to have a relapse, maybe even go into detox, Mr. Bush recalled. And then theyll put you back into a program, and theyll get your Medicaid authorization back up. And they work on you from there. And you just keep going around and around. In August 2. Mr. Bush relapsed to keep his bed the first time, Mr. Baumblit sent him to Narco Freedom. Several months later, Mr. Bush was sent to Canarsie Aware, a small nonprofit. Then, in April 2. Mr. Bush enrolled in NRI Group, a slightly larger for profit program in Midtown Manhattan.