Recovery Center To Move Around The Corner From Their Current Location On Avenue P

LSA Recovery representatives presented their plans to move to a different location just around the corner from where they are now on Tuesday evening and it was approved.

Their current dwelling is 1300 Avenue P and they will be moving a block away to 1664 East 14 Street, according to Ertuania Jorge, the executive director of LSA.

“The community board meeting went very well; the representatives were very pleased,” said Jorge. “We didn’t expect too much pushback since we’ve been providing services in the community for almost nine years.”

LSA opened their doors on Avenue P in 2008 and have been providing people and their families with outpatient services to recover from substance abuse problems. On average the center takes care of 95-120 patients at a time. They don’t provide methadone, just counseling.

LSA has a psychiatrist and a nurse on staff for physical and mental evaluations of each patient, according to Jorge. They even accommodate people who aren’t native English speakers with translators for seven different languages including Hebrew, Yiddish, Spanish, and Russian.

“I just love what I do,” said Jorge. “I refuse to say no to someone without health insurance. We work with them to figure out what they can do and where they can go to get the help they need.”

They’re leaving their current location because the lease expired and the building owner committed the space to NYU Langone, who already has an office on the second floor for breast surgery.

The new space is slightly better, Jorge said. It is closer to the Kings Highway subway stop and it is a little bigger than their current space.

Jorge said her experience in the community and their tenure in the neighborhood helped in getting the move approved by CB15. However, she still had to go door-to-door and write letters to tell each neighbor that they will be moving close-by as per CB15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo’s request.

“What really helped us is that we’ve been there since 2008 with no issues. We have a good reputation and a good name,” said Jorge. “The neighborhood was really welcoming. They were willing to have us come in and do a presentation.”