NPORTC Magazine

SEARCHING FOR A HOME, FINDING A FAMILY

D onald Cline is a resident at New Place of Recovery Treatment Center. “I've been here a little over a month. I like it—I really do.” Donald wants a place of his own, and this is the first step. “My voucher came in now for housing, but this program also helps you find a place afterward.” He shares a story that is a hauntingly familiar theme these days about an insipid, tragically dangerous drug. He was already addicted to heroin, but then “I did just a little bit of fentanyl. . . and my heart stopped three times. The only thing I remember is the paramedics around me. They kept calling my name, and I woke up. I said, ‘Well, what's this blood all over my hand?’” It turns out Donald had been trying to pull out the IV. “Ever since then, I haven't touched it.” The dangers of this substance are unprecedented. “It’s awful about this terrible fentanyl. I’ve lost six of my friends in the last six or sevenmonths. I’d say, ‘What happened to this person? What happened to that person?’” A female friend of Donald’s was awitness to Donald’s near-death experience. “And then they found her dead not three months ago in the bathroom. I thank God every day that I did not go that way.” Though Donald swore off the heroin and fentanyl, another addiction crept in. In December 2021, Donald had a bad fall and snapped his wrist. Three surgeries later and

32