Tommy Higgins

"We want the whole community to know that recovery is happening in Butte County and families are being saved from drug and alcohol abuse," said Tommy Higgins, past executive director of the Skyway House, which is sponsoring the event for the third year.

Higgins steps down as Skyway House leader

By Elizabeth de Alwis Staff WriterArticle Launched: 07/19/2008 01:00:00 AM PDT

if(requestedWidth > 0){ document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.width = requestedWidth + "px"; document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.margin = "0px 0px 10px 10px"; } Tommy Higgins, founder and executive director of the Skyway House, announced he will step down as executive director Thursday afternoon.The Skyway House began 15 years ago when Higgins rented a house in Paradise and invited five recovering addicts to live there.

It has grown to a multi-house rehabilitation organization that has served more than 1,000 clients.Higgins made his announcement to several staff and board members as they chowed down on pizza and salad at Round Table in Chico.

"I didn't know when this day would come," he said."But it has."

He said he's excited about handing over the reigns because he'll be able to work on special projects and work with people directly, something he hasn't been able to do in recent years.

"I used to know all the staff, the residents and their families," he said."This (organization) is my baby I took care of it I fought for it."

Higgins was a heroin addict for 22 years before getting clean at age 40.About two years later, he wanted to help friends overcome their drug addictions as well, but there was nowhere they could go.Higgins said he took them to his mother's garage, where she fed them milkshakes and helped them get clean.

Then he decided to rent a house where five recovering men could live and help one another.The men were living on government assistance and they would pool their money together.Higgins said they lived rather "haphazardly."
...
"I didn't really know what I was doing," Higgins said."It was just a vision I had."

Sometime in the early '90s, however, Higgins said people in Paradise became upset and wanted to know why there where felons and addicts living in town.The rumors and emotions around the issue eventually led to a meeting a town hall, which "started out really bad," Higgins said.With the support of Town Manager Chuck Rough and then-police chief Paul Walters, the meeting started to turn around, Higgins said.
...
There are also plans in place to start a detox house, which Higgins said will be the only detox program in the county, and a Native American program.The organization has grown to be so large with so many responsibilities that it's become overwhelming, Higgins explained.

While it's a "bittersweet thing" to step down from a position he's held for 15 years, Higgins said it will be good for the organization and he's looking forward to being able to work directly with people and the treatment programs again.He will serve as acting executive director until a replacement is hired.

And when that happens, "maybe I'll get some sleep," Higgins said.

Tommy Higgins speaks to 1-year-old MiaLani Clark on Friday at the Skyway House drug treatment center.Higgins is stepping down as the executive director of the center after founding the organization about 15 years ago. (Jason Halley/Staff Photo)

if(requestedWidth > 0){ document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.width = requestedWidth + "px"; document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.margin = "0px 0px 10px 10px"; } CHICO — As his colleagues like to put it, Tommy Higgins went from "one of the most wanted to the most admired" persons in Butte County.

The former prison parolee and narcotic abuser not only turned his life around, but those of dozens of other addicts when he founded the area's first non-profit drug treatment center about 15 years ago.

In part due to poor health and fatigue, he is now turning over the reins of the Skyway House to someone else.

"It would be a disservice to try to keep this going myself," said Higgins, who turns 60 in January .

Suffering from complications of Hepatitis C, a chronic liver condition that likely stems from his earlier drug usage, he said he intends to stay involved in certain specialized projects for Skyway House, but is relinquishing the day-to-day management.

The group's board of directors are now seeking a replacement for Higgins as executive director of the Skyway House.

"It's become clear that we need to find someone with the same vision and passion for treatment that Tommy has, combined with management and business skills; This will be a difficult position to fill," said Skyway House's acting business manager Geordie Mosbarger.
...
In and out of prison for mostly drug-related crimes earlier on in life, Higgins opened the first drug treatment center in 1994, initially serving other recent parolees in Paradise.
...
District Attorney Mike Ramsey was initially skeptical of the drug court concept which Higgins helped to pioneer, but is now is among its strongest proponents.
...
Wrote Ramsey of Higgins: "I have the utmost respect for Tommy.
...
Public defender Steven Trenholme, who represents indigent Prop 36 and drug court defendants, called Higgins a remarkable man who, together with recently deceased Judge Stevens, "changed the whole climate toward drug treatment" for addicts in Butte County.
...
"Tommy Higgins has done a tremendous amount of good for hundreds of people; He has been a real force in Butte County," observed Trenholme.
...
Higgins didn't know what he was creating when he moved into a ramshackle wood-frame home on the Skyway in Paradise in 1993, which soon began attracting other male parolees, as well as the scrutiny of neighbors and police.He became the first in Butte County to open a state-certified residential treatment center for addicts, and soon started getting referrals from the local court.

Skyway House now has about 40 paid and volunteer staff workers, many of whom are recovered addicts.At its annual fundraising dinner in December, those who have gone through Skyway House returned to tell him how their lives and those of their children were salvaged through Higgins' program.

"It was a labor of love; it still is," Higgins said."But it has so many requirements and demands on my time and also the nature of the addicts that go through here is changing ... . There is a lot more mental health issues to deal with and we've watched as the drugs of choice have changed from primarily meth to a variety of prescription narcotics like oxycontin and vicodin," noted Higgins.

The usually energetic ex-parolee said this week said that he plans to go back on interferon treatments to try to slow the progression of his own disease, which will leave him too sick and weak to handle the rigors of the job.

"I'm going back to doing what I love ... to work with the residents and to teach counselors how to treat them with respect," Higgins said with a smile.

Tommy Higgins speaks to 1-year-old MiaLani Clark on Friday at the Skyway House drug treatment center.Higgins is stepping down as the executive director of the center after founding the organization about 15 years ago.(Jason Halley/Staff Photo)All Chico E-R photos are available here.

viewer currentlySelected = 1; viewer lastIndex = 1; viewer images = ['http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site135/2008/0721/20080721 02 news 21~1 Viewer.jpg']; viewer widths = ['179']; viewer heights = ['139']; viewer captions = ["Tommy Higgins speaks to 1-year-old MiaLani Clark on Friday at the Skyway House drug treatment ... "]; viewer galleryUrl = '/portlet/article/html/render gallery.jsp'; viewer articleId = '9946287'; viewer siteId = '135'; viewer isPreviewing = 'false'; viewer isEmbedded = "; viewer activeButtonLead = 2; viewer visibleButtonCount = 5; viewer allowEnlargement = !isEmpty(viewer galleryUrl); selectImage(1); function addToDimension(dim, val){ index = dim.indexOf('px'); if(index != -1){ dim = dim.substring(0, index); } dim = parseInt(dim) + val; return dim; } if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("MSIE") != -1){ $('photoviewer').style.width = addToDimension($('photoviewer').style.width, 2); $('caption').style.height = addToDimension($('caption').style.height, 2); } requestedWidth = 202; >if(requestedWidth > 0){ document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.width = requestedWidth + "px"; document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.margin = "0px 0px 10px 10px"; } CHICO — As his colleagues like to put it, Tommy Higgins went from "one of the most wanted to the most admired" persons in Butte County.

The former prison parolee and narcotic abuser not only turned his life around, but those of dozens of other addicts when he founded the area's first non-profit drug treatment center about 15 years ago.

In part due to poor health and fatigue, he is now turning over the reins of the Skyway House to someone else.

"It would be a disservice to try to keep this going myself," said Higgins, who turns 60 in January .

Suffering from complications of Hepatitis C, a chronic liver condition that likely stems from his earlier drug usage, he said he intends to stay involved in certain specialized projects for Skyway House, but is relinquishing the day-to-day management.

The group's board of directors are now seeking a replacement for Higgins as executive director of the Skyway House.

"It's become clear that we need to find someone with the same vision and passion for treatment that Tommy has, combined with management and business skills; This will be a difficult position to fill," said Skyway House's acting business manager Geordie Mosbarger.
...
In and out of prison for mostly drug-related crimes earlier on in life, Higgins opened the first drug treatment center in 1994, initially serving other recent parolees in Paradise.
...
District Attorney Mike Ramsey was initially skeptical of the drug court concept which Higgins helped to pioneer, but is now is among its strongest proponents.
...
Wrote Ramsey of Higgins: "I have the utmost respect for Tommy.
...
Public defender Steven Trenholme, who represents indigent Prop 36 and drug court defendants, called Higgins a remarkable man who, together with recently deceased Judge Stevens, "changed the whole climate toward drug treatment" for addicts in Butte County.
...
"Tommy Higgins has done a tremendous amount of good for hundreds of people; He has been a real force in Butte County," observed Trenholme.
...
Higgins didn't know what he was creating when he moved into a ramshackle wood-frame home on the Skyway in Paradise in 1993, which soon began attracting other male parolees, as well as the scrutiny of neighbors and police.He became the first in Butte County to open a state-certified residential treatment center for addicts, and soon started getting referrals from the local court.

Skyway House now has about 40 paid and volunteer staff workers, many of whom are recovered addicts.At its annual fundraising dinner in December, those who have gone through Skyway House returned to tell him how their lives and those of their children were salvaged through Higgins' program.

"It was a labor of love; it still is," Higgins said."But it has so many requirements and demands on my time and also the nature of the addicts that go through here is changing ... . There is a lot more mental health issues to deal with and we've watched as the drugs of choice have changed from primarily meth to a variety of prescription narcotics like oxycontin and vicodin," noted Higgins.

The usually energetic ex-parolee said this week said that he plans to go back on interferon treatments to try to slow the progression of his own disease, which will leave him too sick and weak to handle the rigors of the job.

"I'm going back to doing what I love ... to work with the residents and to teach counselors how to treat them with respect," Higgins said with a smile.

Higgins steps down as Skyway House leader - Paradise PostTommy Higgins, founder and liver detox executive director of the Skyway House, announced he will step down as executive director Thursday afternoon.The Skyway House began 15 years ago when Higgins rented a house in Paradise and liver detox invited five recovering addicts

Tommy Higgins, Founder, started Skyway House in 1993 with a key to an abandoned house, six men and a dream that they too could stay clean and find a new way to live as he had done, three of these men remain clean and sober today.

Tommy Higgins, who started Skyway House in 1993 and now serves as its executive director, asked the audience Thursday for a moment of silence to commemorate the recent drug-related deaths.

"We get to see benefits, but there's a lot of failures, too," the head of the local substance abuse treatment center acknowledged.

The pony-tailed recovering drug addict and ex-con knows something about despair and redemption.

Eleven years ago, Higgins delivered a keynote address as "student of the year" at Butte College, where just one year earlier he had been begging for food and shooting up heroin.

Higgins began Skyway House in a rented Paradise home to help out a few fellow drug-addicted cons.

You reap what you sow is not a mere aphorism to Tommy Higgins.

The recovered Chico heroin addict had turned his life around 14 years ago to help save hundreds in Butte County escape a similar fate through his nonprofit Skyway House drug treatment program.

But when he incurred a potentially life-threatening illness this past year, Higgins found himself with no health insurance and little hope.

That's when Paradise Dr. Donald Mansell agreed to treat him at his clinic after hours, saying, "Pay me when you can."

The ridge physician reasoned: "You did a lot of good in this community and I want to keep you alive to do more," said Higgins.

A medical professional in Modesto also offered to "trade a life for a life," by supplying Higgins with the costly Interferon medicine he needed to combat his illness, in return for helping her drug-addicted son.

The young man successfully completed his treatment, and Higgins is now on the painful road to recovery himself.

On Wednesday, the one-time prison parolee and homeless drug addict received a standing ovation from some 400 people, including judges, police officers and lawyers at a benefit dinner for Skyway House in Chico.

Higgins said later that he was "blown away" by the "lifetime achievement award" his staff bestowed on him that night.

Among the testimonials paid to him was from a recovered addict who credited him with helping her remain clean and sober for seven years and landing a job at a Magalia restaurant.

"Today I own that restaurant," the recovered meth user and grandmother proudly proclaimed.

Beginning in the mid-1990s as a two-bedroom home in Paradise, established by Higgins to help drug-addicted parolees like himself, Skyway House now has inpatient treatment centers in Chico and Oroville for men and women and offers group counseling to teenagers struggling with drugs and alcohol .

Its Oroville "Track" home is only one of two in Northern California which allows pregnant women and mothers to remain with their children while going through recovery.

According to Higgins, eight drug-free babies were born there since its opening a couple years ago.

Local judges routinely refer persons convicted of drug-related crimes to Skyway House as a condition of their probation.

Its energetic, pony-tailed founder credits one judge in particular for making much of it possible.

Higgins had been in and out of prison much of his life, living on the street and shunned even by members of his
...
own family, when now retired Butte County Superior Court Judge Darrell Stevens took a chance on him in 1991 and ordered Higgins into treatment.
...
"I haven't used one day since 1991; I've been graced," Higgins told the large crowd at the Elks Lodge in Chico Wednesday night.

Now suffering with Hepatitis C and cirrhosis of the liver, two potentially lethal diseases that Higgins traces to his previous use of dirty drug needles, he has been too sick to attend to his duties as director of Skyway House this past year.

He credited his "loyal staff" with doing "an amazing job" in his absence.
...
"We go from month to month. ... It's been a struggle," Higgins observed privately.He said Skyway House resorted recently to selling off some of its property.

On Wednesday, he thanked those who have supported the program over the years, and challenged other local organizations, businesses and residents to do likewise; either through direct financial assistance or by donating cars, clothes, tools or recreational equipment.

Largely considered a quiet little retirement town, especially compared to neighboring Chico, the forums are a partial response to recent events, said Skyway House Director Tommy Higgins.

From the armed robbery of a pharmacy for OxyContin, an unsolved but suspected drug-related murder and Ryan Thompson Taylor's possible overdose, these events have brought to light the fact that "big city" issues are well-entrenched even in a conservative little retirement community like Paradise.

Higgins, a longtime Paradise resident and recovered heroin addict, speaks from first-hand experience when he says Paradise has a bit of an underbelly to it when it comes to drugs.

"You see it in the police blotter and you see it inside our walls at Skyway House," said Higgins."It's not something you're going to put on a town brochure, but it's here and it's not going away."

Methamphetamine is the largely considered the leading source of problems, Higgins said, although adding prescription drug abuse among teens seems to be on the rise as well.

One person who recognizes that need all too well is Tommy Higgins, founder and director of the Skyway House

"It's sad.People almost have to get into trouble before they can get any help," Higgins said.

Skyway House does offer a limited number of free beds to people unable to pay, Higgins said, but their availability is dependent on space and prior knowledge of the person's financial need.

"We get calls almost every day from people who need treatment but are unable to pay," Higgins said."It's problematic.Treatment does cost a lot."

Higgins said he too was a vocal opponent of Proposition 36, not only because it excluded alcohol from the treatment program, but because it doesn't provide for enough monitoring follow-up services and because it provides too many second chances to violators once inside the Proposition 36 program.