Hundreds of people in Milwaukee die each year from drug overdoses, with many involving opioids. At the same time, people seeking treatment for substance use disorder face a shortage of beds – and may not know where to turn for help.

Two Milwaukee nonprofits, Serenity Inns and Meta House, are expanding to help meet that need. Both Serenity Inns and Meta House provide treatment for individuals struggling with substance use. Serenity Inns only treats men, while Meta House focuses on women.

Serenity Inns recently built a new 14-bed treatment facility at 2830 W. Brown St. in Milwaukee’s Midtown neighborhood. It’s located across the street from Serenity Inns’ other 12-bed facility at 2825 W. Brown St., which remains in operation. The new facility officially opened to residents in mid-September and will serve an additional 56 to 60 men per year. Serenity Inns is working to fundraise for its $3 million capital campaign to pay for the new facility. Milwaukee Bucks TV analyst and former star player Marques Johnson is a board member for the campaign.

The nonprofit will also open a substance use disorder drop-in clinic by the end of the year at 631 N. 19th St., inside Olga Neighborhood Wellness Services.

Meta House, which is currently based at 2625 N. Weil St. in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood, will soon be expanding its services with a $30 million project, called “Project Horizon,” to build a new campus. Meta House purchased the 4.8-acre site for the campus at 3901 W. Bluemound Road in the city’s Piggsville neighborhood on Aug. 6 and held a groundbreaking ceremony Aug. 12.

The new facility, which is expected to open in spring 2026, will have 100 beds for women and their accompanying children. Meta House’s current Riverwest facility has space for about 35 women, so this will provide a substantial increase in capacity.

“We know that this expansion is going to be a resource for many generations to come, and we’re honored to hopefully be a place that families continue to find refuge and hope,” said Valerie Vidal, chief executive officer of Meta House.

‘The person that called may die tonight’

Vidal said the new facility’s higher capacity will help address Meta House’s waitlist. Women on the waitlist for the in-patient program may have to wait three to six months for treatment, Vidal said.

“The sad fact is that some prospective clients lose their battles while they’re waiting to get into the right level of treatment,” Vidal said. “We do our best to partner with other organizations and get folks who call us and who we have to place on the waitlist connected with other services.”

Serenity Inns CEO Kenneth Ginlack said his organization receives about five calls per day from men seeking treatment. But there aren’t enough beds at Serenity Inns, or in Milwaukee County, to help everyone. The county itself is lacking 200 treatment beds, Ginlack said, and this shortage was a push to build Serenity Inns’ new facility even though the project was “underfunded” when it broke ground.

With people dying every day from overdoses, “we couldn’t afford to wait,” Ginlack said.

“My fear was always that the person that called looking for a bed may die tonight,” Ginlack said. “That was something that bothered me.”

Last year, someone in Milwaukee County died from an opioid overdose every 16 hours, said Dr. Ben Weston, associate professor of emergency medicine at the Wauwatosa-based Medical College of Wisconsin, chief health policy advisor for Milwaukee County and chief medical director for the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management. The Medical College of Wisconsin is the research partner of the Milwaukee County Overdose Public Health and Safety Team.

According to the Milwaukee County Overdose Dashboard, there were 646 confirmed overdose deaths in the county last year.

Once Meta House transitions to its new Piggsville facility next year, both Serenity Inns and Meta House will be based within the 53208 zip code. Milwaukee County Overdose Dashboard displays confirmed fatal overdoses ranging from Jan. 1, 2015, to July 7, 2024. There were 260 fatal overdoses in the 53208 zip code during that time – and 44 of those overdose deaths happened last year, according to the dashboard.

Most Serenity Inns clients come from the 53208, 53206 and 53209 zip codes, Ginlack said. People questioned him about opening a treatment facility in a “high drug traffic area or in a community that’s riddled with drugs and violence,” he said, but it’s important for someone to receive treatment in their own neighborhood because that’s where they will often return to after.

Serenity Inns focuses on ‘holistic’ treatment

Serenity Inns has treated more than 700 men since it first began accepting residents in 2004, Ginlack said.

Clients receive 20 hours of treatment services per week. When men enter Serenity Inns’ program, their treatment focuses on addressing substance use disorder and trauma, Ginlack said. The men participate in anger management groups and early recovery groups as well.

The new facility has a conference room, exercise room, library and doctor’s office, with therapists on-site. These amenities allow for the men receiving treatment to lean into different coping strategies, such as relaxing and reading in the library or working out in the exercise room, Ginlack said. There’s also room for more services, like yoga and art therapy.

“Serenity Inns is always taking a holistic approach, meaning that we do more than just treat the addiction,” Ginlack said.

Clients can stay at the treatment facility for four to five months, depending on when they are ready to move on, Ginlack said.

After men complete Serenity Inns’ residential treatment program, they can move on to the alumni apartments at 832 N. 25th St. and may live there for up to 12 months. At the alumni apartments, men pay rent and practice more independent living while still navigating their recovery journey, Ginlack said. Serenity Inns still periodically checks on those men, who participate in weekly group sessions and continue to undergo drug tests.

The men who stay at the alumni house sometimes go on to sponsor a dinner through Serenity Inns’ dinner fellowship, Ginlack said. Each day, the dinner fellowship – which Ginlack called the “heartbeat” of Serenity Inns’ treatment program – allows members of the community to sponsor and share a meal with the men who are going through treatment.

“We never close the door on our clients,” Ginlack said. “Once they enter this family, they continue to be in our family.”

Ginlack, who joined Serenity Inns as CEO nearly three years ago, went through recovery himself for alcohol and cocaine use. He began treatment for substance use disorder in 2007 and has been clean for 16 years, he said. He sometimes shares his story with the men in treatment “to give them hope and give them a framework to shoot for as a motivational tool,” Ginlack said.

“Me being in recovery, understanding the process of what it takes to start this journey of recovery, you know, it means a lot to me to work with the men and make sure they get their hope back,” Ginlack said.

Meta House supporting women and families

Since Meta House was founded in Milwaukee in 1963, it has become a local leader in treating women for substance use disorder. In the beginning, Meta House only had space to provide residential treatment services for up to eight women. It has since expanded in size and scope.

Now, Meta House is “able to wrap services around the entire family,” Vidal said. Some women may need to bring their children along to treatment, which may prevent them from receiving the help they need, she said.

“A mom is never going to leave her child behind in an unsafe environment, even if it means going to pursue getting herself well,” Vidal said. “By providing spaces that allow for moms to bring their kids with them into the treatment setting, we’re removing that barrier, which means it’s more likely that the mom will seek out those services knowing that she can bring her child with her into the treatment setting.”

The added support for children has influenced the design of Meta House’s upcoming facility, which will include space for children to play, a dedicated child care area and space for doulas to visit and conduct classes for pregnant mothers.

There are few treatment providers in Wisconsin who will accept pregnant or postpartum women, Vidal said, so there’s especially a shortage of beds for those women.

“Meta House will accept a woman up to and through her due date and immediately thereafter,” Vidal said. “Pregnant and postpartum women are some of the most vulnerable community members, so it is imperative that we get them services as soon as possible, not only for the mother’s health, but, of course, the baby’s health as well.”

She said many of Meta House’s clients, including women who are pregnant or postpartum, are coming from unhealthy or abusive situations at home, or may not have stable housing, “which is obviously incredibly dangerous for somebody who’s expecting.”

Sarah Koehn, director of philanthropy and marketing at Meta House, said that the women receiving treatment at Meta House often have low incomes, histories of experiencing domestic abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health disorders.

“What Meta House is bringing to the table for these families is a really comprehensive approach to treatment, so that we’re addressing all of the other challenges that they’re facing in addition to their substance use,” Koehn said.

The impact on families

Meta House’s inclusive focus on treating women as well as their families is “invaluable,” said Abiola Keller, Ph.D., a Meta House board member and associate professor and interim associate dean for research at Marquette University’s College of Nursing.

“For a child to be in a household with a woman who is battling substance use disorder or to have been separated from their maternal figure because of substance use disorder, that is a traumatic event,” Keller said. “Those children need support, and they need treatment and a way to process that experience so that they don’t look to substance use as a way of managing some of the emotions from that traumatic experience.”

Lucretia Dillon, a Serenity Inns board member and human resources director at Next Door Milwaukee – a nonprofit that provides early childhood education – also said that addiction affects an entire household, including children and their behaviors.

“Not supporting those who have addictions breaks up families,” Dillon said.

Families continue to feel the impact of addiction after a loved one dies as a result of substance use. Marcel Clarke, a Serenity Inns board member and owner of Milwaukee-based Paradise Memorial Funeral Home, said he sees the fallout of opioid use “on the front line.”

“I’m dealing with the families who are grieving because of it,” Clarke said. “Some of the families have guilt, some are embarrassed, ashamed, et cetera, wondering if there were other resources that could have helped their loved ones to not be in that predicament.”

Clarke said his experiences serving those grieving families are partly what motivated him to be involved with Serenity Inns. Funeral homes are “in the business of taking care of the deceased, but we don’t want to see people dying that don’t have to,” he said.

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Disparities persist

Milwaukee County has seen a decline in overdose deaths by about 4% from last year, Weston said.

But even though there has been a decrease in overdose deaths, there are still clear disparities, said Constance Kostelac, Ph.D., director of the division of data analytics and informatics in the Comprehensive Injury Center at MCW. Kostelac helps lead the Milwaukee County Overdose Public Health and Safety Team.

“Even as we’re seeing some positive trends, the disparities that we’re seeing in terms of race and ethnicity in particular are not slowing,” Kostelac said.

This means Black people continue to overdose at a higher rate than white people, she said. The Milwaukee County Overdose Dashboard now features a map showing the distribution of overdose deaths across zip codes, and the patterns in overdoses “by race and ethnicity mirror what we see in terms of segregation,” Kostelac said.

Social determinants of health and socioeconomic factors are also intersecting challenges for people in the areas with the highest concentrations of overdoses, Kostelac said.

Men overdose at a higher rate than women in Milwaukee, which has been “relatively consistent” for years, Kostelac said. In 2023, 72.8% of those who died from overdoses were male, while 27.2% were female, according to the Milwaukee County Overdose Dashboard.

“There is some research out there that suggests some of the reasons may be more use or riskier use by men, but it also may include other factors that I think are still being researched and understood,” Kostelac said.

Ginlack said he believes men are “more reluctant” to receive treatment.

“A lot of men in the community have been raised to be tough, to stick it out, handle our business on our own, so they struggle with asking for help,” Ginlack said. “So, the more we create an environment of safe space, they’re going to come in and be vulnerable, then the more we’ll be able to help them.”

Overdoses in Milwaukee County

The Milwaukee County Overdose Dashboard provides data on fatal and nonfatal overdoses in the county. The dashboard helps track trends over time and across demographics and geographies. This graph shows fatal and nonfatal overdoses since 2018. As of press time, data for 2024 was available through the end of August, with nonfatal overdoses down 3.4% and fatal overdoses down 33.9% compared to the same period in 2023. The graph shows forecasted 2024 totals based on those trends holding through the end of the year.

Fentanyl and the opioid epidemic

Vidal said many of Meta House’s clients have used opioids, often in addition to other substances. Clients also often have histories of alcohol use primarily, she said.

“A lot of our clients are going to select more than one substance as one that they’ve used in recent proximity to their being admitted,” Vidal said. “Heroin and other opiates make up over 40%.”

More of Meta House’s clients are disclosing that fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is their preferred substance, Vidal said. Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin and commonly mixed with other drugs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Anecdotally, we are hearing more clients who come in saying that fentanyl is their most recent substance of choice, which, of course, is very scary because of the lethality of using that as a substance,” Vidal said.

There’s an emerging trend of overdose deaths involving a combination of fentanyl and a stimulant like cocaine. In 2023, most overdose deaths in Milwaukee County involved fentanyl, either alone or in combination with other substances, Kostelac said. Last year, about eight out of 10 overdose deaths involved fentanyl and six out of 10 involved cocaine, “so a good portion of those are in combination with each other,” she said.

“What we’re seeing is a lot of the stimulants are now being cut with fentanyl or have fentanyl in it, and so individuals that have a history of cocaine use are starting to die due to the mixture of fentanyl and cocaine,” Ginlack said.

More education about fentanyl and overdose risks as well as access to harm reduction products, like fentanyl test strips or naloxone, can help combat this issue, Kostelac said. Naloxone, a medication that can come in the form of a nasal spray or injectable, can reverse an opioid overdose if administered soon enough, according to the CDC.

Serenity Inns’ drop-in clinic

People will have access to those harm reduction products as well as a counselor and peer support specialist at Serenity Inns’ upcoming drop-in clinic. Ginlack said he is excited that the clinic will be located between the north and south sides of Milwaukee.

“The need is in the community, not only just the north side, but the south side as well,” he said.

Individuals can come in and talk to the on-site peer support specialist without showing an ID or signing up for treatment, Ginlack said. The drop-in clinic will also offer demonstrations on how to use fentanyl strips and Narcan, a nasal spray brand of naloxone.

Ginlack said there will also be a weekly group session designed to educate people about substance use disorder and treatment options. If someone is interested in getting treatment, the counselor on staff will assess the individual, determine the level of care they need and refer them to treatment, whether it is outpatient or residential, he said.

“If treatment is full – so they call residential and can’t get a bed – we’ll continue to see that individual at the drop-in center once a week, check in with them as they continue to be on the waitlist or get into treatment,” Ginlack said.

Workforce preparation

The second phase of Serenity Inns’ treatment program involves building a resume and searching for jobs, Ginlack said.

To help clients secure employment, Serenity Inns partners with organizations such as Neenah-based Apricity, which offers treatment and employment services for people recovering from substance use disorder. Apricity has contract packaging facilities in Milwaukee and Neenah where people can work while they navigate their recovery journey.

“The whole work environment is surrounded by treatment,” Ginlack said. “Everybody there is in recovery.”

Serenity Inns clients learn financial management skills through visits from Town Bank. Serenity Inns’ partnership with Town Bank also allows men to open bank accounts with Town Bank so they can save money while they work, Ginlack said.

Meta House similarly provides vocational and educational services, teaching clients about resume writing, budgeting and interviewing through weekly group sessions, according to its website. There’s also a literacy center on-site for clients preparing for their GED or the written driver’s test, seeking assistance with reading or writing, among many other needs.

“Everybody deserves a second chance,” Dillon said. “Once someone gets support, they can turn out to be one of the best employees an employer has.”

Clarke first got involved with Serenity Inns about 15 years ago when his fraternity participated in a suit drive. The group ultimately donated about 110 suits to Serenity Inns, he said, with the goal that men in treatment could find confidence wearing the suits during job interviews.

“We wanted those men to have confidence and to feel as though they can go out and obtain a job and get gainful employment,” Clarke said. “We also realized that the cycle doesn’t stop until you get some positive things in your life, so definitely was something I felt personally was worthwhile.”

Addressing the stigma

Ginlack said it’s socially acceptable when someone takes time off work because they have cancer, diabetes or other medical issues, but it’s the opposite when a person struggling with substance use doesn’t go to work. When a person has a gap in their work history due to substance use, that person may get turned down for a job.

“If more employers be understanding and realize that it’s a medical condition, then we would be better off,” Ginlack said.

Stigma continues to be an obstacle for people struggling with substance use disorder and mental health, and some people don’t reach out for the help they need because of that stigma. Employers can do more to encourage their employees to get help and provide them “space and time to get treatment if they need to,” Vidal said.

“That’s so important for the community and the workforce, full stop,” she said.

Education about Narcan and opioid reversals as well as having Narcan available in the workplace can simultaneously save lives and combat stigma, Vidal said.

“We have to change the narrative around substance use disorder, and we have to get rid of the stigma,” Keller said. “People need to feel empowered to seek treatment, and that means we need employers that are responsive to that.”

Meta House board member Marcos Vega, who is senior vice president and director of institutional markets at BMO Commercial Bank in Milwaukee, said Meta House’s mission resonates with him because he grew up around addiction. He said members of the business community can help challenge the stigma by demonstrating empathy, care and open-mindedness toward those who are struggling with addiction.

Some people turn to substance use as a means of coping with personal traumatic events, and this should be met with greater empathy, Vega said.

“They’re suffering from a mental illness, in most cases, and oftentimes there’s this stigma with addiction that people are just deciding consciously over and over again to spiral out of control, quite frankly,” Vega said. “Which is where Meta House comes in, because our clients will elect to submit themselves to our care and they raise their hand and admit that they know they’ve got a problem. It’s incredibly courageous to admit themselves to our program.”