Families, former residents and community supporters gathered Thursday, May 29 at Grace Lodge to celebrate the renewal of a lease agreement that will allow XChange Recovery to continue operating its transitional housing program for women recovering from addiction.
The event featured food, music and testimonies from program graduates, along with remarks from county leaders who had helped secure the five-year lease extension.
“We’re just loving people like Jesus would,” Vicky Smith, pastor and director of XChange Recovery, said. “But everybody comes in with different issues, different barriers, and they help navigate that whole system. It’s been a powerful thing to have peers in long-term recovery providing hope.”
Clark County owns the property at 6702 NE Septan Drive, which was initially purchased with Conservation Futures funding for habitat conservation and potential public use. Since 2010, the county has leased the site to XChange Recovery, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which operates a residential recovery program at the facility. The council formally approved the new lease on May 6, and it extends through 2029.
The program uses a 7,568-square-foot building on 1.5 acres of land. The property houses up to 20 individuals, with one unit for staff and family members, and the other for women enrolled in the recovery program.
Smith said the program is faith-based and high-accountability but welcomes anyone, regardless of their beliefs.
XChange Recovery’s model combines clinical treatment, peer mentorship, 12-step recovery work and community support. Each participant goes through a structured, multi-phase program that can last from 10 months to two years.
Since opening, the lodge has supported hundreds of women through transitional housing. One of them, Rachel McIntosh, shared her story at the celebration.
“I was rough,” McIntosh said. “I had a lot of pride and anger. I left the program, and I called Vicky crying — ‘Will you take me back?’ — and she took me back. That’s the first time I really felt love. Like, no one’s giving up on me.”
She described returning to Grace Lodge, finding sobriety, surviving a stage 4 cancer diagnosis, and even getting married on-site just weeks ago.
“This place is home to me,” McIntosh said. “Somewhere I go to for Christmas because I never had that.”
The lease renewal follows a tense chapter in early 2023, when the organization was informed that the county did not plan to renew the agreement and instead planned to demolish the building. That decision changed after Smith and dozens of supporters filled a county council meeting to testify about the program’s impact.
“They were powerful testimonies,” Smith said. “They moved the hearts of the councilors.”
County Councilmember Glen Yung, who spoke at Thursday’s celebration, reflected on the site’s ongoing role in helping women recover. Yung expressed gratitude for the nonprofit’s role, stating, “We can’t afford to lose any of this work of this great work, we need to add to it.”
“I know from personal experience that we often lose people before we lose them, if you follow me … we have family, friends that are still alive, but we have lost, [they’re] no longer that person we love, over time,” Yung said. “It’s truly devastating when that happens, we do not have enough resources available to help folks who are in recover, who need the support, connections and resources to help them through a dark time in their life.”
Under the terms of the lease, XChange Recovery will pay $500 a month plus leasehold excise taxes. They’re also responsible for completing a list of maintenance tasks during the lease period, which includes costly repairs like roofing. Smith said community members, churches and skilled tradespeople have stepped up in the past to help, and they’re hopeful more will join in again.
“We’re taking donations for materials or labor,” she said. “But I don’t doubt God’s going to complete it — like He’s done everything else.”
Readers can learn more or donate by visiting xchangelives.org.
