Lena Franklin

Lena Franklin, the director of Recovery in Community Inc., a drug treatment program that does outreach in three Southwest Baltimore neighborhoods, said in-patient drug treatment was not enough. She said that recovering addicts also require help finding housing, as well as mending ties with their families. Franklin said that public officials should view drug addiction like any other disease and dedicate the resources necessary to see addicts all the way through the recovery process.

"We have to realize that relapse is part of [the recovery process]," Franklin said.

"We invited people in the community to tell us what they need," Franklin said, "and they said we need something for women."

With a mix of public funds and donations from groups like the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, it's been renovated into a sorority-like home that can house up to 12 women. Franklin said the residents will be able to move in as soon as the house passes various residency inspections. (In something of a metaphor for the never-ending struggle of its clients, RIC, as it was working on its new housing facility, learned it would have to move from the former church rectory that served as its headquarters. It's found an alternate location in the same neighborhood.)