Finding safety after recovery
Addiction has had a profound impact on Debra’s life. Finding a home at HousingPlus came after a long journey through recovery, relapse, and lot of work on herself. But after that work, she knew that she would make it count. “You think you have the rest of your life to do the right thing,” she says. “I’m grateful that I have a roof over my head. I know there are many who don’t.”
For years, Debra wanted to ignore her parents’ drinking problems. Her parents were both alcoholics. She was the youngest of seven, and her siblings had moved away before she came of age. Caregiving for both her mother and her own children fell to Debra. “I used to have to throw a child in the car, go over to her house and bathe her and feed her,” she says, describing how she helped after periods of her mother’s binge drinking.
She pushed aside many bad memories, including abuse at the hands of a “so-called family friend.” She wanted to forget. “My answer was to escape reality,” she says.
One day, in a dark place in her addiction, she chose to get high instead of going to court to fight eviction proceedings with her landlord. “They gave me every chance they possibly could,” she says of the housing court system, “but [addiction] takes over your life.”
She was being evicted from the apartment she’d lived in for 20 years. This was a cycle she felt like she had been repeating for too long. She had gone through treatment before, and spent years at a time in recovery, but had relapsed as well. She says her mistake was that she never learned to grieve or work on her deeper trauma.
When she decided to go back to treatment in 2023, things had changed for the better—and so had Debra. “This time I felt ready like never before,” she says.
Debra moved into a residential recovery program. She was fully committed. It got hard sometimes; she had eight other roommates. After 18 months, she knew she was ready to move on. She moved into permanent supportive housing at HousingPlus at the end of May 2025, not long after celebrating a birthday.
“My space is important,” she says, “I can walk upstairs and close my door…I have learned not to take that for granted. My world has become safer to me.”
She makes a large meal at least once a week and saves the leftovers for meals throughout the week. She keeps her space extremely clean, and on a small whiteboard she marks down different plans for the month.
Debra says she has learned a lot in her time in treatment and at HousingPlus. She has also used her writing to express herself and help her through. Recently, an essay she wrote about her life experiences won her a scholarship to attend a recovery coach academy. As of January 2026, she has completed the program with 50 hours of training. Her long-term goal is to find work as a Certified Peer Recovery Advocate. “I just want my life to move forward,” she says. “And along the way, be able to help someone move their life forward.” With a stable home, Debra knows it will be.
Debra says she has learned a lot in her time in treatment and at HousingPlus. She has also used her writing to express herself and help her through. Recently, an essay she wrote about her life experiences won her a scholarship to attend a recovery coach academy. As of January 2026, she has completed the program with 50 hours of training. Her long-term goal is to find work as a Certified Peer Recovery Advocate. “I just want my life to move forward,” she says. “And along the way, be able to help someone move their life forward.” With a stable home, Debra knows it will be.
Debra says she has learned a lot in her time in treatment and at HousingPlus. She has also used her writing to express herself and help her through. Recently, an essay she wrote about her life experiences won her a scholarship to attend a recovery coach academy. As of January 2026, she has completed the program with 50 hours of training. Her long-term goal is to find work as a Certified Peer Recovery Advocate. “I just want my life to move forward,” she says. “And along the way, be able to help someone move their life forward.” With a stable home, Debra knows it will be.