Episode 48 | The #RecoveryFirst Podcast with Mike Todd & Guest Marc Burrows, Bobby Brazell, Michael Crouch & Riley KoyoteEpisode 48 | The #RecoveryFirst Podcast with Mike Todd & Guest Marc Burrows, Bobby Brazell, Michael Crouch & Riley Koyote
The Recovery First Addiction Recovery Podcast by Freedom Recovery Services of Greenville
A panel of recovery advocates discusses equality in recovery housing, focusing on how medication for opioid use disorder is treated, funding barriers, and the experiences of indigent people seeking safe, ethical housing. The conversation compares South Carolina’s challenges with Georgia’s progress and calls for education, regulation and stronger advocacy.
1:15:03•29 Oct 2021
Equality in Recovery Housing: MAT, Stigma and the Fight for Fair Access
Episode Overview
- Many recovery residences advertised as MAT-friendly in South Carolina reportedly restrict or pressure tapering of medications, creating dangerous barriers for people on treatment.
- People using methadone and other medications for opioid use disorder face significant stigma and discrimination within recovery communities and treatment systems.
- Education of housing operators and communities, as shown in Georgia, can gradually shift rigid policies towards safer, evidence-based acceptance of MAT.
- Indigent individuals often lack access to regulated, safe recovery housing, highlighting the need for funding, regulation and genuine oversight tied to ethical practice.
- Advocates stress the importance of unified voices, recovery coalitions and holding state agencies and legislators accountable for evidence-based policies and funding priorities.
“"Basically, I advocate for this population because they're systematically the most discriminated group of people in the recovery community and in addiction treatment in general."”
How do people find hope in the darkest times? This conversation gives a raw glimpse into exactly that, as recovery housing meets medication for opioid use disorder head-on. Host Mike Todd brings together a fiery panel of advocates – Marc Burrows, Bobby Brazell, Michael Crouch and Riley Koyote – to tackle “equality in recovery housing” in South Carolina. The vibe is part kitchen-table rant, part policy roundtable, with a lot of humour and honesty holding it together.
Marc shares how a simple bit of online research into ‘MAT‑friendly’ recovery homes exposed what he bluntly calls “false advertising”, describing houses listed as supportive of medication that either banned it or forced dangerous tapers.
Bobby talks about the reality of running a tiny, underfunded recovery community organisation, pointing out that “we have to compete with your friends… for a very small percentage of funding.” Riley brings hard-earned experience from Georgia, where years of education work slowly shifted recovery residences towards accepting methadone and buprenorphine.
She explains how they chipped away at rigid house rules with facts, relationships and sheer persistence, stressing that “this is considered the gold standard of treating opioid use disorder.” Michael, openly crediting methadone for saving his life, calls out how people on medication “are systematically the most discriminated group of people in the recovery community”, from being forced to taper to being made to hide their treatment at meetings.
Across the conversation, you’ll hear about the gap between “the haves and the have‑nots”, the need for regulation that actually protects indigent people, and the frustration of seeing state agencies promote housing lists that don’t genuinely support medication. If you care about recovery housing, work with people on MAT, or just want to understand why this debate matters for life-and-death outcomes, this roundtable might leave you asking: what role could you play in pushing for fair, evidence-based recovery options?
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