PHA Healthcare collects millions of dollars a year to treat hundreds of ppl struggling w/ addiction. Many of its patients have not gotten better. Instead, placed by the company in what are effectively government-funded drug houses, they have relapsed, fallen deeper into addiction and sometimes died.

Fernando Rivera-Estrada, called his mother in January 2023 after less than a month in the program. “If I don’t get out of Baltimore,” he said, “I’m going to die.” He fatally overdosed on fentanyl the next day.

Over one 10-day period, Schauber said, she overdosed six times. Her boyfriend and other patients administered Narcan and called 911. She told the house manager about the overdoses, but no one gave her extra help, she said. She later left the program.

Amanda Vlakos wrote, “I am spinning out of control.” She said that her thoughts were racing and that she needed counseling. “I prayed so hard for God to help me and I woke up to a text from you,” she said.

Two weeks later, a roommate found Vlakos dead in her bedroom. The plywood-boarded building they were staying in was in such disarray that a police officer said it looked abandoned.