Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan's Second Wave's On the Ground Kalamazoo series.


KALAMAZOO, MI — It is nearly impossible for someone not struggling with an addiction to understand how fierce that hold can be. Pamela Coffey, executive director and founder of Healthy House for Women in Kalamazoo understands. 
They call her Miss Pam. 

“My personal experience — I am a recovering addict. I have 31 years clean,” she says. “When I left treatment, my first sponsor said, you shouldn’t go back to living where you are living now. So I rented a room from a woman in the recovery world.”
The impact of that move, a move that removed Coffey from her world of addiction, she came to realize was crucial in her recovery. Years later, that realization would lead to her founding Healthy House for Women with her husband Patrick. 

Fran DwightPam Coffey, Executive Director of Healthy House for Women in KalamazooHealthy House is the only women's recovery program in the Kalamazoo area that offers a long-term housing solution where women can stay until they find safe, supportive housing, regardless of their ability to pay. 

An idea takes hold

Coffey had worked as a hairstylist for 35 years as she embraced a clean lifestyle. She ran a Christian recovery program at her church when a woman came to her and said, “Miss Pam, you should open a woman’s house.”

“I didn’t think a lot about it, but once I retired, and then in 2008 when the housing market fell through, I bought this five-bedroom house in Kalamazoo,” Coffey says. “For the first couple years, my husband and I ran it out of our own pocket, but then at some point, we decided to make it a nonprofit.”

Healthy House, a 501(c) (3) organization, officially opened in 2015, now offers a safe, sober, structured, and nurturing environment, case management services, supportive services, basic life-skills training, employment support, trauma and cultural education, domestic abuse prevention, and empowerment training to residents. Healthy House can house up to eight residents and has served well over a hundred women since it opened its doors.  

Fran DwightPam Coffey, Executive Director of Healthy House for Women, speaks to resident Willesha RiddleCoffey began by running the place out of her own experience for what addicts want and need. 

“I knew that having a place to stay when you first come out of treatment is very important,” she says. “For many, many years, it was me doing all the work. I have a servant’s heart. I love talking to women — I did that as a hair stylist, too. Running Healthy House was hard work, but it wasn’t difficult. For the women to meet me, they could see that I had done it, I had been in some of the same places they had been. They could see I had stayed clean and turned my life around.”

The familiar journey

It was only a few years ago that Coffey brought in staff to help her. What makes Healthy House so unique, she says, is that a job requirement for staff is that they, too, are addicts in recovery. She believes firmly that it is the only way to truly understand and empathize with residents in recovery. 

Program director Megan Allen has not personally dealt with addiction, but all staff — currently four women—working directly with residents have. Allen says she lets potential residents know that she does not have direct experience with the addiction journey.

Fran DwightMegan Allen, Healthy House for Women Program Director“But I let them know I do have many similarities with them just because of the struggles of being a woman,” Allen says. “I never want them to feel like their situation is so isolated or that they are so different from the rest of the world. I, too, have experienced not having the support I needed to lift me up to a place I needed to be.”

Allen looked for what she could do differently in her work at Healthy House to prevent residents from relapsing and repeating the cycles of addiction. 

“I asked myself, what is it that we are missing?” she says. “With the program at Healthy House, what we are trying to build here is a solid foundation. Our core values are to be sober, safe, and self-sufficient. I think there is a balance between self-sufficiency and community. I don’t want the women to think they can do everything by themselves. That’s not realistic. 

Fran DwightMegan Allen, Program Director, and Pam Coffey, Executive Director of Healthy House for Women in Kalamazoo, and resident Willesha Riddle"At the same time, I want them to get out of the mindset that they are dependent on people or their perspectives or their past experiences. It’s ok to let go of those and walk into something different. It’s ok to detach.”

To build that new life, Allen brings in a financial coach, connects the women to a job readiness program, and introduces them to holistic healing practices such as yoga, and therapy to help them understand what they are going through in their transition. 

Been there, done that — and doing it again

Willesha Riddle was a former resident in 2022 for eight months but has recently returned after time away to care for her ill sister as well as work at a homeless shelter in Florida. When she had a relapse, she looked to Healthy House to help her once again. 

“I had about four months clean before I moved into Healthy House back then, and about a year when I left,” Riddle says. “Healthy House saved my life. Prior to coming here, I was falling into a deep depression. I was beginning to slip into behaviors that would lead back into active addiction. I was on probation back then, and my probation officer told me about Miss Pam and her sober living house. 

Fran DwightWillesha Riddle, resident of Healthy Hosue for Women"I called Miss Pam, she interviewed me and asked me when I could come in. I said, maybe next week? And she said, how about tomorrow! When I came in, I saw what kind of woman she was and that she really had a heart for women like me.”
Riddle says she lacked a support system, a family that would help her, but that she found that family at Healthy House. 

“Miss Pam is like a mother figure,” she says. “I look up to her. I respect her. She’s someone I can go to when I’m struggling. She gave me the love and support I didn’t get from my family. When I had a relapse, I knew Miss Pam could help me. I felt like giving up, and had I stayed in Florida, I knew I would not be able to get clean.”

Riddle had to go through the interview process again when she returned. When was asked what was different this time, she burst into tears. 

“I didn’t really know how to answer that question,” Riddle says. “I knew I wanted to get my life back to where I had been before going to Florida. All I could say was that I want this. I want to live a clean and healthy life. I want to get back to a life where I can follow my dreams. I was bawling my eyes out and Miss Pam reached out to me. She believes in me, and I had never had that before.”

Fran DwightMegan Allen, Program Director, and Pam Coffey, Executive Director of Healthy House for Women in Kalamazoo“You have to want to have that self-accountability to change,” Allen adds. “Willesha didn’t stay in her comfort zone. She was willing to do the hard work, and we could see that in her.”

Riddle has enrolled in school since her return. She had restored healthy community connections that helped in her recovery. And she has stayed clean. 

Expanding the dream

Along with women who are in recovery, Coffey also accepts women coming out of prison with no place to go. She meets with probation officers to connect with candidates. Another resident had been chronically homeless and needed help getting a new start. The waiting list is always full.  

Fran DwightA new house on Douglass Avenue purchased by Healthy House for Women“Many rehab treatment places let you stay only 30, 60, or 90 days,” Coffey says. “We don’t do that. What can you do in 90 days? Recovery takes time. If you need a place to stay while you work on your recovery, you are welcome here, rent-free, up to two years.”

Coffey writes grants and receives funding from Southwest Michigan Behavioral Health and other donors to cover costs. In 2023, the Kalamazoo YWCA named her a 2023 Woman of Achievement. She is not, however, anywhere close to resting on her laurels. A second house is in the works. 

“Almost four years ago, we purchased a new house on North Douglas,” Coffey says. “It’s on 1.4 acres. We were just approved for a special use permit. When we purchased the house, we found out we weren’t zoned properly — but now we are. This is so exciting! We had a special use permit earlier, but we couldn’t do anything during Covid and the permit expired. We had to start all over again.”

The house sat for years until the new permit was approved — and now the hustle begins to renovate and prepare a new and second Healthy Home. The new house will house nine women. 

Fran DwightA new house on Douglass Avenue purchased by Healthy House for Women is surrounded by 1.4 acres.“Our contractors think they can have the work done in six months,” Coffey says. “It’s going to be absolutely beautiful. The house is surrounded by woods, so it’s such a serene location. The women will be two to a bedroom with full-size beds—our current house has twin-size. All state of the art.”

There are moments that Coffey isn’t sure she deserves the accolades. But then, she says, “I look back and I realize how hard I work to have Healthy House open and keep it open. I thought about the hardworking women in my family, and I thought, I got this Woman of Achievement Award for all of us.”