Despite opposition, committee approved sober living facility

Full council votes next week on the facility

Austin Reinhart doesn’t lack for money. He’s Austin Reinhart. Of the La Crosse Reinharts.  

Hard to find a family locally with less of a need for money or to do any kind of work.

Reinhart acknowledged that Tuesday, while still fighting to operate his sober-living facility on La Crosse’s north side.

“I do have family money,” he said. “Absolutely, that’s the case. I don’t have to be doing this. I’m doing this because it is what I am passionate about and because recovery gave me a life.

“I could be doing anything else, but I chose to work with this disenfranchised, stigmatized population.”

A city council committee has approved a plan 6-2 for the Driftless Recovery sober living facility on Caledonia Street, despite neighbor opposition.

The 16-bed facility would be a transition space for those recovering from addiction.  

Reinhart heads Driftless Recovery and passionately defends the need for the new resource.

“I hear a lot of north side residents, talk about these issues that exist within our community and all we are trying to do is be helpful,” he said.

Reinhart says he understands the neighbors’ concerns and is trying to address them.

“All we are trying to do is provide these people with things you say are already existing within your own community,” he argued. “We are trying to provide an alternative to that. We’re trying to provide safe, structured housing.”

The full council votes on whether to approve the sober living house next week.