Lower Eastside Service Center

About Lower Eastside Service Center

Lower Eastside Service Center (LESC) is a nonprofit addiction and mental health provider on Manhattan’s Lower East Side that has served New Yorkers since 1959. Their care is person-centered, strengths-based, and trauma-responsive, built around the idea that housing, employment, and mental health support all affect whether recovery lasts. They treat opioid, alcohol, and other substance use disorders, along with co-occurring depression, anxiety, and trauma, and they also run a dedicated program for problem gambling. Services span outpatient medication-assisted treatment, the Su Casa residential program, and supportive housing in Manhattan and the Bronx, and they accept Medicaid, Medicare, and most private insurance.

Su Casa is a state-licensed, 24/7 residential program that moves clients through stabilization, rehabilitation, and reintegration phases based on progress rather than a fixed timeline, with stays typically lasting several months to a year. Because an opioid treatment program operates on-site, residents can receive methadone, buprenorphine, or Vivitrol without leaving the facility, and daily groups, weekly individual sessions, CBT and DBT skills work, and trauma-informed care are part of each resident’s schedule. A Pregnant Women and Infants track lets mothers stay with their newborns, supported by an on-site nursery and parenting counseling, while the reintegration phase helps with housing, job searches, and résumé writing. Outpatient opioid clients are paired with a dedicated counselor and can use an early-morning clinic designed for working clients, with staff who also help with probation reports, Medicaid transportation benefits, and barriers such as language differences, HIV, or homelessness.