A 23,000 square foot mansion on Prospect Street in New Haven’s East Rock neighborhood once housed artifacts explorer Hiram Bingham III brought back from South America.
“The heiress to the Tiffany jewelry family was somehow related here as well,” said David Vieau, the CEO and Founder of CT Clinical Services.
Now, the single family house is under renovation to become a home for young women from across the country seeking treatment for addiction.
“There’s a heroin epidemic going on in this country,” Vieau said, as he set up one of the bedrooms.
CT Clinical Services, also known at Turning Point, runs several similar sober houses for men in greater New Haven.
"So we’ve learned an awful lot about what property works,” Vieau said.
The new sober home is situated in a perfect location on Prospect Street, Vieau said.
“It’s right on a bus line so that the girls are able to get downtown to find jobs or to get to gateway college or university or school or what have you,” he said.
CT Clinical Service’s programs provide more than just a safe space to overcome an addiction.
“We have individuals that help with life skills training, that’s anywhere from helping them how to ride a bus, to cooking, cleaning, day to day life skills stuff, resume building,” Vieau said.
Purchased earlier this month for about $2 million, crews are already hard at work remodeling everything from the basement to the attic, replacing both the heating and air conditioning.
“I’m told it was one of the first air condition systems available in the United States and it was made by General Electric,” Vieau said.
Vieau said the City of New Haven has been supportive of his mission to provide addiction recovery programs.
“Their desire to help people with recovery issues is unprecedented,” he said.
It is an ambitious goal, but Vieau said he hopes to have the new sober house ready to open in June.
