NORTH HOLLYWOOD : Treatment Center Opens New Building

A new $10-million, 120-bed drug treatment facility has opened in North Hollywood.

Cri-Help Inc. began 23 years ago in a cramped Sun Valley building and moved to its North Hollywood building in 1975. During the last year, the old building, a former orphanage for Jewish boys, was torn down and replaced with a modern facility.

On hand for the ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday were singer Natalie Cole and Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs.

Named the George T. Pfleger Center, for a Newport Beach benefactor whose son was a client of the facility, the new building will allow Cri-Help to better offer 24-hour drug treatment, counseling and education.

When the group started in 1971, as one of the first to provide long-term recovery programs for drug addiction, they survived from month to month. Sometimes program leaders were not able to pay the rent because of other bills, said Executive Director Jack Bernstein.

But Cri-Help has always offered at least half of its bed space to those who cannot afford to pay.

Their financial situation has improved over the years as fund-raising efforts improved and as the group won contracts from the California Youth Authority to serve as a treatment facility for inmates shortly before their release, or for those on probation after serving sentences in Los Angeles County Jail. But donations are always being sought.

Cri-Help’s clients are those who have completed detoxification programs and are trying to learn to stay off drugs and return to society. Bernstein said that all the organization’s clients find jobs if they complete the program.

Cri-Help also offers a literacy program, family groups, AIDS education and support groups, and help in finding jobs.

The new facility is located at 11027 Burbank Blvd.