FARMINGTON—Anyone who has played Monopoly knows that Park Place is one of the premier properties to buy. The Red Barn Academy’s new graduate housing is a play on the popular board game. They had a ribbon cutting on June 29 to open the doors of the new facility. 

The academy is a two-year program to help men who have been broken by addiction and crime to reinvent themselves through honesty and accountability.

“Park Place is transitional housing,” said Michael Haws Executive Director. “Students have three or four career opportunities waiting when they graduate from the program. They are well behaved, work hard and will be successful employees but the housing piece can be difficult.”

In Utah landlords can deny housing to anyone, he said. “They pull their record and won’t rent to them. While they’re finding a place to live they can go across the street.”

They can stay there for a year and they pay $500 in rent, said Haws. “When they move out they can go to the landlord and show that they’ve paid rent on time and say ‘give me a shot.’ The goal is transitional housing is a stepping stone to their own independence.”

Students are supervised and have to do drug testing, he said. “They’re still very involved in the Red Barn. We invite them back for dinner, etc. The key to success is connection.”

Park Place across from the Red Barn campus provides transitional housing for men who have completed the two-year program. Courtesy photos

At Red Barn everyone is a brother, Haws said. “We’re like minded to stay sober and live a happy and joyous life. We’re not a drug program. We teach accountability and responsibility so they can be productive in the community. We believe if they develop integrity and healthy coping skills they’ll never go back to drugs and alcohol.”

There are signs everywhere that say “opioids kill,” he said. “They are selling fear. They don’t focus on the problem. We focus on kindness, love, hard work and responsibility. We teach that you’re 100% responsible for what you do.”

The ribbon cutting was held on a special day because June 29 was when Haws’ little brother Dustin died in a sober living home. “There was no structure and unfortunately we lost him,” Haws said. “He was 21 years old.”

That changed the trajectory of the Haws family’s lives. “We wondered what we could do so that another family doesn’t have to go through what we did.”

Haws said he was addicted to drugs and alcohol himself. “One month after he died, on July 26, 2012 I had my last drink.”

Together with his father, Haws started looking at programs after reading and studying information about therapeutic communities that were based on hard work and discipline. “It jumped off the page,” he said. “We visited programs in California and Italy, all for research development.” 

His father built a little red barn on the property in 2008, Haws said. “He didn’t know why it just felt right. We were farmers. Fast forward to 2012 and the family thought they would take the barn to help people like Dustin. AA and Al Anon meetings met there. But we decided we needed to do something more.”

Haws said at the beginning of Red Barn they were mowing lawns for $25 and the whole yard for $50. “I was the trash and laundry guy. I held every position from top to bottom.”

Now the academy has seven moving trucks, a thrift store and the Sticky Bird restaurant all run by its students. “We started with two employees (at Red Barn) and now we have 11,” said Haws. “Ten of them are graduates of the program. We believe in each one, teach one. They go through a staff-in-training program. We meet with them and if that goes well we hire them and give them the opportunity to work at Red Barn. It’s a stepping stone to give them the foundation to move on and free up an opportunity for the next guy.”

The academy is not a lockdown facility, said Haws. “We don’t take arsonists, or anyone with capital punishment or sexual crimes. Anyone perceived as a threat to the community goes to prison instead of Red Barn. Twenty percent of the men are walk-ins and are homeless. The other 80 percent send us letters from jail or prison.”

It’s a free program, he said. “There’s no federal funding or tax. We’re a social enterprise program with movers, a thrift store and Sticky Bird. We’re saving taxpayers the $30,000 it would have cost to incarcerate them. We’re actually rehabilitating them so they can reinvent themselves and learn healthy habits so they can be an asset to the community.”