Michael Schaeter arrived at the Sobering Alternative For Recovery Center with nowhere to go. He had fled a domestic violence relationship and was homeless. Within moments of walking through the door, he was taken in, given a shower and started on medication to treat opioid use disorder.
“This place, they took me in immediately,” he said.
Schaeter’s experience reflects what Pima County’s first medically monitored sobering and recovery center — known as SAFR — was designed to do: provide immediate, low-barrier care to some of the county’s most vulnerable residents. Since opening in January, the center served more than 130 patients in the first three months. Now, an early evaluation offers a first look at what’s working and what still needs attention.
Pima County is facing an opioid crisis with about 2,000 overdose deaths since 2020 — 97% of these deaths are accidental. To take action, the first medically monitored SAFR center opened six months ago at 250 S. Toole Ave. and has served more than 130 patients in Pima County.
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In November 2025, the Pima County Board of Supervisors approved an award of $1.8 million from the Regional Opioid Settlement Advisory Council to fund the center established by Community Bridges Inc.
The center operates as a low-barrier deflection program that provides medical services to voluntary walk-ins and people who are typically encountered by law enforcement or emergency services. The center offers 15 beds, is open 24/7 and patients are encouraged to stay for 96 hours.
The center provides clinical assessments, medications for opioid use disorder and referrals for long-term treatment. Patients do not need insurance to receive care.
Francisco Calles is a patient at the SAFR center. He is waiting to be placed in a home and is trying to recover from fentanyl and alcohol addiction.
“My first experience is welcome,” he said. “Welcome to our company, welcome to our help.”
Calles heard about the program from people he met at a bus stop downtown. He said that as a walk-in patient, the staff encourage him to keep coming back for help.
“If you’re not capable to nurture yourself, they will nurture you,” he said.
Since the center’s opening in January, the University of Arizona Responsive, Insight Strategy and Engagement team, or RISE, subcontracted with Community Bridges to conduct a pilot period evaluation from January to March to assess how the center is progressing.
In the next three months, Pima County leaders will decide whether the SAFR center pilot period will continue with a one-year extension.
“The months ahead represent a critical window,” the RISE team reported. “The program is approaching a level of operational maturity that was not yet possible during the first several months following launch.”
In two months, 10% of the budget was spent with $1.68 million remaining.
In January and February, the average cost per patient was $1,706 and the average cost per day was $3,123.
Here is what the RISE team found:
Who are the patients?
The SAFR center had 149 admissions by March 22 and served 138 patients — 100% of the patients were unemployed and 97% of the patients were unsheltered, with 76% on Medicaid.
All patients at the SAFR center are required to take a urine drug screening. In February and March, one-third tested positive for opiates and 91% tested positive for fentanyl. Patients who have opioid use disorder are able to start or continue buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid use.
Over two-thirds of the patients reported talking to others less than once a week. According to the Pima County Health Department, one of the most prominent barriers to accessing care is attitudes toward people dealing with drug abuse.
“A number of people with lived experience reported encountering stigma and judgment related to getting care from health care professionals and in interactions with law enforcement personnel and the public at large,” the Pima County Health Department reported.
The majority of referrals to the SAFR center came through the Tucson Police Department. The rest were referrals from friends, family, other Community Bridges programs and health services.
“Out the gates we’re finding that the folks are coming out of the encampments and going over here either through a deflection program or on their own as a voluntary option,” Deputy County Administrator Steve Holmes said in a Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting in February.
The SAFR center provides two main entrances into its facility, one for patient check-in and one for TPD and first responder drop-offs.
“They’ll give you all the medicine you need to try to help keep you sober,” said Schaeter, a patient. “If you follow the program, they set you up.”
Patients are staying for longer at the center
During a Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting in February, Holmes told the board that a challenge they were facing was that most patients weren’t staying for the intended full four days.
“The people who are staying longer seem to be less acute in their conditions of substance use disorder,” Holmes said.
According to the University of Arizona RISE team, the length of stay has increased with each month. The team predicted that patients have been staying longer due to describing the facility as a shelter during outreach efforts.
In the first month, the average time patients spent at the center was 10.7 hours compared to 89.3 hours in March. The center’s goal is for patients to stay for the complete 96 hours.
Analyses conducted by the RISE team concluded that patients who are older, patients who were given a psychiatric evaluation and patients who continued to take opioid-use medication tended to have a longer stay.
A shortage of staff and issues with data quality
Community Bridges had filled 11 of 19 staffing positions at the center as of late March. The RISE team acknowledged a disparity of nurses and behavioral health workers, with eight positions remaining to be filled.
“They get things done in a timely manner when they have the staff,” said Bonnie Joerz, a patient at SAFR. “Sometimes they don’t have many staff to help so I’m waiting for four or five hours.”
“I’m hoping to get back on my feet,” she said.
Insufficient data was the most prominent issue found during the RISE team’s evaluation. A memorandum from Pima County Health Department Director Theresa Cullen said the evaluation identified critical issues that must be addressed promptly. “The report emphasizes that current data systems remain insufficient and require additional investment in staffing, training, and IT infrastructure,” Cullen said.
An example of data quality issues at the SAFR center happens during a patient’s arrival. This period is called triage time, and the data measures the time from when the patient gets to the center and when they are given care. The center’s goal for patient arrival to triage time is 10 minutes. In January, the data reported that the triage time was zero minutes for all patients, suggesting an issue with documentation.
To address this, Community Bridges added a data entry field for patients to fill out when they arrive at the center. Between February and March, 14 patients reported their triage time.
According to the RISE team, other areas that had deficiencies in data collection were tracking law enforcement deflections, unreliable data on patient satisfaction surveys and missing information on opioid-use medications.
“Addressing these issues will be essential to ensuring evaluation accuracy and long-term sustainability,” County Administrator Jan Lesher said in a memo.
Patients have switched from being referred to friends and family to other programs
A priority at the center is developing additional treatment plans for patients after they are discharged. “SAFR has demonstrated strong early performance in connecting individuals to continued care with approximately 96% of patients receiving referrals upon discharge, approaching the program’s target of 100%,” Cullen said.
In January, around half of the patients were provided with placement referrals to family and friends for treatment. In February and March, the majority of referrals transitioned to other clinics.
Schaeter was referred to a Community Bridges shelter after his first visit to the SAFR center. “I was there for four months,” he said. “That place was great.”
The most common reason patients weren’t properly discharged was due to personal and emotional factors. The RISE team said this often reflected patients who were not ready to receive treatment or who required further medical care.
According to the RISE evaluation, there were 25 incidents in January and February that presented issues for referrals and may have led to incomplete discharges — 52% of those incidents were patients who refused medical treatment, 12% were suspected criminal activity, 8% were physical abuse and 4% were abuse to staff.
No incidents were reported in March.
The center is improving accommodations for pet care
Pets can provide additional support to patients with substance use disorder. The SAFR center has been developing an animal care program for patients who are pet owners. In February and March, six dogs and one cat were housed at the center.
Community Bridges collaborated with the Pima Animal Care Center to provide patients with free rabies vaccinations prior to arrival. Crates, leashes, harnesses and a waste bag dispensing station are available at the facility and staff with pet allergies have been relocated to other programs.
According to the RISE team, improvements are still needed in tracking data to measure the impact pets have on patients’ length of stay at the center. Staff also identified a challenge in finding referrals that are pet-friendly for patients after discharge. A dog run has been proposed but is not operational.
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