SHALOM House founder and chief executive Peter Lyndon-James has been slugging some residents at the drug rehab nearly twice as much as the advertised price.
Mr Lyndon-James has repeatedly said on his Facebook page that entrants to the program pay only $300 a week “and not a cent more”.
But Community News can exclusively reveal that for more than a year WA Shalom Group (WASG), the charity that runs the rehab, has been charging residents an extra $200 a week on top of that by way of a ‘loan’.
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The extra charge is carried as a mounting “paper” debt in the charity’s books until the resident leaves Shalom House.
If the person successfully graduates from the program, the “debt” is totally waived by WA Shalom Group Inc.
However, if the person leaves without graduating – and an estimated 95 per cent of entrants do not complete the five-stage program – WASG can call in that debt.
There is no mention of this extra $200 a week on the Shalom House website.
On the “About the program” page, the charity says that the cost of the program is “$300 per week, which covers all food, rent and other outgoings for the house”.
On the charity’s website, under “Our values”, Mr Lyndon-James says: “I charge each one of my fellas $300 per week for full board and not a cent more.”
He did not respond to questions about the extra charge, but referred the matter to the charity’s law firm, Steenhof Brothers.
Lawyer Simon Steenhof emailed Community News in October 2019 to say that he was taking instructions from his client.
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There has been no further response.
The $200 charge is revealed in internal Shalom House paperwork obtained by Community News.
The “deed of agreement” states residents shall pay the “reasonable cost” of the program, being $500 a week from the day they enter the program until they leave.
The resident’s Centrelink payments and all other funds received, including from working for Shalom’s labour hire company, are held in an account managed by the charity.
The contract states: “The fees shall be paid by the resident to WASG in the following manner a) $300 being taken from the account on a weekly basis by WASG and applied to the fees b) The balance of the fees, being $200, being loaned each week to the resident by WASG to be applied to the fees for the duration of the resident’s participation in the program.
“Where the resident graduates from the program, as determined by the CEO, the loaned amount is wiped and no longer constitutes a debt owing by the resident to WASG – this will be a graduation gift from WASG to the graduating resident.
“In the event the resident leaves the program for any reason other than graduation from the program, then the whole of the loaned amount shall be owed by the resident to WASG as at that date.”
The contract also states WASG reserves the right to take any funds held within the account and applying them immediately and without notice to the resident, to the loaned amount and any balance thereafter shall be debt due and payable by the resident.
‘Cult-like’ approach at Shalom House
Mr Lyndon-James, a self-confessed former drug addict and career criminal, regularly spruiks on Facebook and at his Tough Love seminars that he is running the world’s best rehab and that people leave the program “100 per cent debt free”.
Under the new charging arrangements, it appears people entering the program who fail to graduate could end up leaving with a sizeable financial debt to the charity .
Community News revealed last year that only about 49 residents had officially graduated from the program out of the more than 1000 people who had been through its doors since its inception in 2012.
Based on those figures Shalom House has a success rate of just 4.9 per cent.