The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Jim Walker, volunteer president of the Alano Club, is scrambling to find a new place for his group to meet. The Alano Club provides support for recovering alcoholics and drug abusers.

Addiction-recovery club loses its lease

Members of Alano will relocate in the fall--if they can

By Justin Berton

Charlene S. has attended a recovery meeting at the Mid-Peninsula Alano Club in downtown Sunnyvale seven days a week for the past 19 months of her sobriety.

The Alano Club is a place for recovering alcoholics and drug abusers to gather and aid each other in healing, much like Alcoholics Anonymous.

The location of the club is close to Charlene's work, and the lunchtime sessions, with members sporting both high-tech suits and blue jeans, make the meetings safe and accessible.

"It's a very convenient place to go for a lot of us," Charlene said.

Charlene is just one of the more than 800 people who will be looking for a new place to attend meetings after the owner of the building--the city of Sunnyvale--notified the group last month they are on a month-to-month tenancy.

The city, which leased the building to the club two years ago at a discounted price in return for upkeep of the property, said the group will most likely have at least until September to find a new building before its current site is demolished to make way for downtown redevelopment.

Officials of the nonprofit club fear that a relocation--one they estimate they can't afford--could cause a drop in membership and, more importantly, a drop in recoveries.

When the center was forced to close in the early '90s, membership dropped and once-familiar faces were never seen again, said Jim Walker, volunteer president of the Alano Club.

"People's recoveries are at stake here, which means people's lives are at stake here," Walker said.

The city has no affordable buildings to rent to the group of 300 permanent members but has referred the group to real estate brokers to help with the search.

"We just don't own anything that would be appropriate for that type of facility," said Michael Chan, the administrative services manager of the city's public works department.

Along with hosting 40 recovery meetings per week, the center also serves as an accredited facility where alcohol- and drug-law violators can meet their court-ordered obligations.

Walker estimates 200 visitors with "court cards" attend meetings at the club each week.

Though Walker says he has been presented with a few options for new locations, the new sites have problems. Either the rent is too high for a club that is dependent on donations, or the location is in the industrial area of the city--where rent is affordable but too far from major bus lines and an easy-to-reach location.

Walker said a site far from the city center will alienate those who are looking for help.

"Nobody gets here when their life is wonderful," he said. "Most of the time, people don't have their driver's licenses when they get here."

Jim Webb, an administrative assistant who oversees city funding for social services in the city manager's office, said the city denied the club funding in 1996 after the council had already allocated resources to other nonprofits. As a solution, Webb said, the city decided to lease the club the dilapidated building for $1,543 a month on the condition that club members bring it up to code. Alano members also knew they would one day lose the site to downtown redevelopment.

Regardless of the conditions entering the project, Walker said the club jumped at the offer.

The Alano Club has spent more than $21,000 to refurbish the 6,000-square-foot building that also has a computer station and a recreation area.

"Very honestly, with the land prices, I'm not sure we're going to have very much success [in relocating the club]," Webb said. "It's a rough situation, for them, for us and for companies in the city."

Walker said club administrators have taken up grant-writing classes and have begun to solicit local business for extra donations to help with the expected increase in rent.

"We'll find someplace to go," Walker said. "Even if it's beyond our means.

No matter what happens to the Alano Club, Charlene said she will find a new center where she can attend attend meetings every day.

"I'll have to find a new place to go," she said. "I'll have to."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, April 22, 1998.
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