Finding 'The Way Out': How Joseph McFee Center in SF helps recovering addicts rebuild their lives

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The number of overdose deaths in San Francisco is on the decline.

According to data from the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, last year's total of more than 630 deaths is down by 22% compared to numbers from 2023, which were at 810 deaths.

And it doesn't stop there. Salvation Army's The Way Out program actively works to get more people into recovery every day and help those numbers go down further.

ABC7 News first met Timothy Stewart back in December, when he was serving as a bell ringer for the Salvation Army's Red Kettle campaign. The 61-year-old was more than halfway through completing their Harbor Light recovery program after living on the streets addicted to cocaine.

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Harbor Light marks the first step in The Way Out initiative.

"They're giving me a second chance at a first-class life," Stewart said in a Dec. 2024 interview.

On Monday he proved he wasn't going to be just another statistic, graduating from the program with more hope than he had at his high school graduation.

"This graduation meant more to me than that one did, because this graduation, I get to start a new life," Stewart said.

Now, with a new set of teeth and a job interview lined up next week, he's all moved into The Joseph McFee Center in San Francisco, which marks the next step in The Way Out program.

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"You have more freedom, you have more choices," he said. "Because of Harbor Light, I choose to get up. I choose to be at morning meeting. I choose to go to outside meetings. I choose to continue to work with my sponsor."

The Joseph McFee Center is a two-year recovery housing program, where residents like Stewart are required to spend 40 hours a week working, looking for work or going to school. If they do end up with a job, the program temporarily holds 50% of their income until graduation.

"Really what that's about is creating a nest egg where it's really incredibly expensive here in San Francisco, and it's about giving somebody's life back. A leg up, when they start their journey outside the Salvation Army's care," said Destiny Pletsch, deputy director of The Way Out initiative.

Pletsch says right now, the program's success rate is 76%.

"It is people who are graduating from Joseph McFee Center, who are clean and sober and have somewhere to live," she said.

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Though, Stewart has only been living here for less than a week, he's hopeful for what it can do for his future and the futures of the other 90 residents he shares a roof with.

"You can't do it alone," Stewart said.

Crediting every step of 'The Way Out' program, his counselors and his faith for keeping him 189 days sober.

Once he lands a job, he hopes to start going to school to become a drug resource counselor, after his next graduation in two years.

"You're going to come out of this but your mess is going to become a message," he said.