The #RecoveryFirst Podcast with Mike Todd Bonus: "Let’s do something about Recovery housing abuse now."The #RecoveryFirst Podcast with Mike Todd Bonus: "Let’s do something about Recovery housing abuse now."
The Recovery First Addiction Recovery Podcast by Freedom Recovery Services of Greenville
Mike Todd shares how safe recovery housing helped him escape homelessness, then calls out abuse, exploitation and human trafficking within some sober homes. He outlines a new abuse hotline and urges the recovery community to take action rather than ignore what vulnerable residents are facing.
11:30•19 Jul 2021
Standing Up to Abuse in Recovery Housing with Mike Todd
Episode Overview
- Safe, clean recovery housing can be life-changing and teach responsibility for people leaving homelessness and active addiction.
- Unregulated recovery houses can become sites of patient brokering, drug dealing, insurance fraud, physical abuse, and exploitation.
- Forcing residents to trade labour for housing is described as a form of human trafficking, especially for people fresh out of detox.
- A new abuse hotline has been set up so people in early recovery can report sexual or labour abuse and get help reaching proper authorities.
- Members of the recovery community are urged to stop staying silent; hearing about abuse without acting is framed as being part of the problem.
“"Every human being has the right to live in a safe, clean environment that they can grow in their recovery and that they can grow, period."”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This bonus share from The Recovery First Addiction Recovery Podcast puts a hard spotlight on what can go wrong when recovery housing falls into the wrong hands – and what people in recovery can do about it. Host Mike Todd talks frankly about why safe housing matters so much to him.
Back in 1990, he was homeless and sleeping in his car until he landed in a clean, sober condo by the beach, surrounded by people who actually cared. That experience, he says, taught him responsibility and probably saved his life. From there, things get serious. Mike runs through some of the worst stories he’s heard over the years about recovery houses: patient brokering, residents being sold drugs, insurance fraud, physical abuse, and now increasing reports of sexual and labour exploitation.
He explains how some operators force people fresh out of detox to "trade labour for housing" – for example, roofing a house or washing cars – and calls it what it is: a form of human trafficking. He’s blunt about the role the wider recovery community plays too. As he puts it, "if you're hearing about this... and you're not trying to take action...
then you're part of the problem too." Instead of just venting, he shares a concrete step: setting up an abuse hotline so people in early recovery have a safe place to report sexual or labour abuse and get help reaching the proper authorities. This short episode speaks directly to anyone in or around recovery housing – residents, advocates, recovery coaches, or friends and family – who cares about making those spaces genuinely safe.
It’s a call to stop gossiping, stop shrugging, and, as Mike repeats, "do something" to protect a vulnerable population that "deserves a chance at recovery" and a genuinely safe place to live. If recovery housing matters to you, what’s one small action you could take today to help keep it safe?
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