Last year, drug overdoses took more than 100,000 American lives. This month is National Recovery Month, which celebrates the gains made by those recovering from substance abuse. And it honors those who facilitate the healing.

One place that bears witness to those gains every day is Friendly House in Los Angeles. It’s the very first women’s residential recovery home in the world and has treated more than 50,000 women since 1951.

Alexis Robles was homeless for as long as she can remember before she sought treatment at Friendly House. She shared her story of addiction, and eventually, recovery.

“I was 18 when I started doing crystal meth. I was homeless. I was living in my car. I would let people smoke in my car, let people stay in my car. And one day, cops just surrounded me and there was just 30 grams of heroin in my car. After my arrest, I was given an option to either just take the time, go to jail or go to rehab. I went to rehab for four months. Then I went to a sober living location in West Hollywood. I got kicked out from that sober living. I was never really healed until I came to Friendly House,” Robles said.  

Christina Simos, the executive director of Friendly House, explained how their program works.

“Friendly House has two homes. The original home, which is our detox and residential [center] that has 12 beds, and then our sober living, which is in Cheviot Hills, that has ten beds. A woman comes in here and she is drunk or on drugs. We’ll have a detox for that. And then once you’re done detoxing, which could last anywhere from three to 12 days, depending upon the substance, you’ll go into a residential program. And that’s when we start looking at causes and conditions that have a psych eval. If they are willing and able, they’ll transition to our sober house,” Simos said.

Robles became a recovery technician at Friendly House in December 2022. Simos spoke about how important it is for Friendly House alumni to stay involved.

“This is a sisterhood. I call it the sober sorority. And we have our Thursday meeting. It’s an alumni meeting. This meeting has been here as long as Friendly House has been in all of these. All of our alumni know every week they can come back, we have dinner, we kiki, we dance. But the community factor is so strong. Eighteen years I’ve been with Friendly House and I have friends that I got sober with that are still my sisters. And if any one of these folks ever needs anything, we are there,” Simos said.

To learn more about Friendly House and its treatment programs, head over to FriendlyHouseLA.org.

Click the arrow above to watch the full video.

Watch “LA Times Today” at 7 and 10 p.m. Monday through Friday on Spectrum News 1 and the Spectrum News app.