Wilm funeral home is now $5 million drug recovery center

Limen Recovery + Wellness’s ribbon cutting and open house Friday, Feb. 28, will celebrate the addition of its new substance abuse rehab center in downtown Wilmington — and also that the organization was able to buy and renovate it without going into debt.

“We’re living in a time of a lot of different uncertainties, and this is a story of hope,” said Becky Flood, interim chief executive officer. “People deserve that, too.”

The center, created out of the former Aloysius Butler Clarke building on Washington Street, already has its 17 mens’ beds and 15 women’s beds filled. Clients are allowed to stay for 30 to 90 days before moving on to a sober living program.

The Wilmington building, which also will serve as Limen Recovery’s headquarters, is expected to help an additional 600 people a year fight addiction.

Over its half-century of existence, Limen has provided a continuum of services to thousands of addicts who have completed a detox program and are medically stable, eventually allowing them to resume life on their own with the skills to fight their addictions.

Focus on recovery, not rent

The program is predicated on putting recovery first and not rent, said Michael Webster, Limen Recovery’s chief advancement officer.

No one is turned away if they can’t pay, but Limen does accept insurance and Medicaid if it’s available, especially for the intensive outpatient services and counseling that will be offered at the Wilmington facility.

“There will be a spectrum of care, what we call a seamless system of care, where somebody could actually live with us for almost up to two years,” Flood said, “and by that time, should be ready to live in community, potentially buy a home, finish their college education, get job ready. So we are actually helping people get well, transforming their lives and transforming this community in Wilmington that really needs to have a transfusion of helping vulnerable populations get completely stable.”

Limen Recovery — an independent nonprofit focused only on Delaware  — spent $1.7 million to buy the ABC building in 2022 and is at the end of a $3 million renovation on the building, also known as the historical Yeatman Funeral Home.

The purchase even came with a coffin in its basement.

The money to buy the house and renovate it came from private donations, as well as state and foundation grants.

“We paid cash,” said Flood. “We own every one of our properties outright. We don’t hold a mortgage, and we have no line (of credit). We are a debt-free organization.”

Needed help

Finding treatment and places to recover has been a challenge for Delaware residednts who want to get away fr0m drugs and alcohol.

Nearly 140,000 Delaware adults have a substance abuse problem, according to a 2024 state release.  with only a fraction of that number of beds available in detox and sober living facilities.

While the number of deaths from accidental drug overdoses dropped 1.8% in 2023 — down to 527, one year does not make for a trend, addiction experts say.

They worry about statistics from the Delaware Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health that indicate increasing numbers of fatal overdoses and drug use in Black and Hispanic/Latino communities.

One Delawarean grateful to have access to Limen Recovery is Jimmy Hudiburg of Sussex County, who is on his second swing through the program.

The first time, in 2009, Hudiberg said he didn’t take advantage of what was offered and decided he didn’t need it any more once he left. He ended up living in the woods in Sussex before going to jail for three years after his fifth DUI conviction.

In jail, he told people he thought he could still drink as long as he stayed off drugs.

“Are you crazy?” one of his friends there asked him. “You’re in here for a three year sentence for DUI. Why would you think you could drink?”

Making the most of rehab

That friend talked him into giving Limen Health another chance. Many addicts go through rehab more than once before their new habits stick.

“I had a lot of lot of resentments in myself for not taking advantage of a program that I knew that worked,” Hudiberg said, “and so I promised myself this time I was going to take my thoughts out of the equation to do whatever they asked because I knew it worked and it had a high success rate.”

He’s been there more than a year and is now a resident assistant at one of the men’s houses. He expects to stay another six months before moving back into society.

Hudiburg believes that the Limen Health program works because it’s organized in small groups that support each other and follow the program.

“It’s simple, but us alcoholics and addicts complicate it,” he said. “We learn to live life on life’s terms, and to be humble and grateful, and learn to heal, have our self respect and self worth back, all through the fellowship and a higher power I choose to call God. It’s very unique, but very hard to explain sometimes, because it’s almost magical.”

One of the things he’s come to appreciate is the strength of Limen’s alumni program, which devotes a lot of time and attention to the program’s currrent resident members. Hudibergg, 51, is now on the alumni board.

One example of the devotion and impact of Limen’s alumni is Vinnie Garibaldi, Webster said.

A decade ago, Garibaldi founded the organization’s biggest annual fundraiser, the Amethyst Ball held every November.

RELATED STORY: Limen purchase to help 600 more people get sober each year

Fundraising is not just toting up the take, Webster said.

“It’s being honest and authentic about who we are and who our mission is and who we serve,” Webster said. “And there’s no better person who can speak to that truth than Vinnie Garibaldi.”

“Right after I completed Limen House, my only thought was how can I help Limen House give other people the help that I recieved there,” said Garibaldi, who now runs one of the men’s sober living houses.

Friday’s ribbon-cutting will take place at 10 a.m., and the building will hold an open house and offer tours of the facility until 5 p.m. for anyone who wants to drop in.

Webster said the event culminates five years of work, three years of extreme fundraising, service and program development, as well as relationship building and construction.

“We want to bring everybody who’s had a hand in this project together and to celebrate this achievement.” he said “There’s nothing quite like this in Delaware in a continuum of care.”

He consideres the residential programs, where addicts live together in various levels of freedeom, the cornerstone of Limen’s work.

“Wherever they start or wherever they raise their hand and say, ‘I need help,’ we’re going to have an option to help them separate from drugs or alcohol, and we also get to introduce them into one of the strongest recovery communities in Delaware that’s been over 56 years in the making.”

Limen Recovery + Wellness was formed after Limen House, which was founded in 1069 at St. Andrews Catholic Church, merged with Triad, the Trinity Alcohol and Drug Program, which began at Trinity Episcopal Church in Wilmington not long after Limen was founded.

Both organizations had survived financial threats to their existence and felt like they would be stronger together.

Flood went through the Triad program herself, sitting on its board and then Limen Recovery’s board before becoming interim director last year. The organization will search for a new national director, she said.

“Triad has always been outpatient counseling, referral, community drop in center, family therapy, whereas Limen House was always residential, sober living halfway house model of care,” Flood said.

The merger, which put all the services under one umbrella, went largely unnoticed during the pandemic, Flood said.

Extending their reach, Limen Recovery has signed a memorandum of understanding to host a new drop-in center at the hospital where the recovery community can meet  as part of the  hospital’s Healthy Village program.

The organization also hopes to expand into detox programs, which helps addicts cope with drug withdrawal in a safe environment. That won’t come for several years, Webster and Flood said.

Budget growth

Limen Recovery’s budget for 2025 was $2.4 million, and this year it’s $4.7 million, reflecting its growth in services.

The combination of public and private funding has allowed Limen Recovery to grow, Flood said.

When Limen Recovery bought the ABC building, public funding from the state or federal government accounted for 40% of that, with the remaining 60% coming from donations and private foundations such as the Longwood Foundation, the Welfare Foundation and the Laffey-McHugh Foundation.

A $1 million gift from Linda and Paul McConnell in December 2021 and $1.2 million from American Rescue Plan Act grant in August 2022 helped buy the building and jumpstart fundraising for renovations.

It’s hard to say how many people the organizations have helped leave addiction behind, Webster said.

He believes 17,000 to 30,000 people have been directly impacted in the last 56 years, “and countless more, if you want to count wives, brothers, fathers, sisters, daughters, sons.”

As the Trump administration cuts the federal budget, “we’re not immune from the uncertainty,” Webster said. “But we are committed to do what is right.

“We’ve been around for over 56 years. There’s been stigma around addiction in those in those years. There has been different philosophies and different views on on these things. But you know, if you have a good mission, and you’re putting people first, we are confident that Limen can navigate the uncertainty.”