Ohio state Rep. Justin Pizzulli recently shared a story about a man struggling with an opioid addiction who received a court order to go to recovery housing in Portsmouth in Scioto County.
“He was supposed to be coming to my community to rebuild his life,” Pizzulli, R-Scioto County, said at a press conference.
Instead, officials who visited the recovery home with the man found cockroaches crawling across the floor, dog feces inside, and doors falling off the hinges.
“Somewhere in the middle of all this was a man battling with addiction, a man who had been sent there court ordered because the system said this was where he was supposed to get better,” Pizzulli said.
“A person in recovery deserves dignity and a genuine chance to rebuild their life.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine recently signed an executive order that gives the Ohio Department of Behavioral Health the power to create a statewide-certification program for recovery housing operators.
“As Ohio’s behavioral health system has grown, so has the need for stronger and more consistent oversight,” said Ohio Department of Behavioral Health Director Tia Moretti.
“We’ve identified opportunities to strengthen monitoring, enhance compliance, and create a more uniform statewide system. … This gives us the ability to respond more quickly, act more consistently, and better protect the people who depend on these services every day.”
There were 356 recovery houses in Ohio in 2022 and today there are more than 1,700 — a nearly 400% increase.
“With this rapid growth, oversight of this industry has been difficult to be able to keep up,” DeWine said.
Recovery houses are only supposed to house four to five people at the most, Moretti said.
But Pizzulli said he has seen recovery houses with 10 people.
“There’s bunk beds, folks are crammed in there like sardines,” he said.
“As a result of that, the septic plumbing is failing because it’s a residential home. It’s not set up for commercial use.”
The state is seeing unregulated recovery houses operating without a certification.
“These non-certified homes are operating illegally,” DeWine said.
The Ohio Department of Behavioral Health has taken legal action against many of the homes operating illegally, DeWine said.
“But frankly, we have to do more,” he said.
“Many of these unregulated recovery houses reportedly have unsafe living conditions. We’re particularly seeing this in southern Ohio, where communities were heavily impacted by the opioid epidemic.”
Pill mills were rampant across southern Ohio and Scioto County was hit particularly hard. As Attorney General, DeWine closed the last pill mill in Scioto County in 2011.
“For us, the opioid crisis was something that we lived,” Pizzulli said.
“We watched friends become addicted. We watched families fall apart. We went to funerals, and we lost friends close to us.”
A pill mill was in the same strip mall as the pizza shop were Pizzulli worked when he was in high school in 2009.
“I remember going to work and seeing people lined up early in the morning, waiting to get their prescriptions a mile out the door for OxyContin,” he said.
“I saw men and women consumed by addiction. I saw children caught in the middle of it. While delivering pizzas one day, I was actually once robbed by someone struggling with addiction.”
Pizzulli has seen how good recovery housing can change people’s lives.
“But bad actors have discovered something very disturbing,” he said.
“You can profit from addiction even when recovery is not happening, and without strong enough standards and oversight, parts of this system have become the wild west.”
The state is also seeing potential abuse of the system between recovery housing operators and recovery treatment providers.
“That deserves further scrutiny to determine if it is, in fact, fraudulent,” DeWine said.
“For example, recovery housing operators and treatment providers cannot provide services out of the same location. That is against the law.”
DeWine’s executive order gives the Department of Behavioral Health investigate authority to make sure recovery housing providers are operating within the law. If a provider is found to be operating illegally, the department will refer them to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office for prosecution.
“Fraud, waste, abuse, and exploitation of people who are fighting for their lives will not be tolerated,” said Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson.
“To those folks, to those providers, to those recovery house owners who are engaged in this activity, you need to stop right now because your time is coming.”
Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on X or on Bluesky.
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