For three years, LeeAnn and her boyfriend lived on the streets in Kensington, making money by selling stolen goods and using the cash to buy drugs.
“We were unsafe at all times. You’re always looking over your shoulder,” says LeeAnn, now 41, who hasn’t used narcotics since December 2024. “It was just a horrible lifestyle.”
Still, she didn’t rush to take advantage of Prevention Point Philadelphia’s services.
“I was afraid of being judged,” says LeeAnn, now 41, who hasn’t used illegal narcotics since December 2024. “And I really didn’t understand what they were doing so it was kind of confusing.”
Then LeeAnn began taking advantage of PPP’s syringe exchange program. She also used PPP as a source for Narcan, using the opioid overdose reversal drug that saved her life at least three times to treat countless people.
Still, she wasn’t ready to consider another way of living until October 2024, when her boyfriend was incarcerated and she found herself alone and vulnerable. That December, a skin infection turned septic and LeeAnn woke up in the hospital.
“I’d been in the hospital for something similar before and when they asked me where I wanted to go (upon release), I said, ‘Kensington.’ But this time … I said ‘Rehab.’ I was just defeated and I knew that if I went back out there alone, I would become even more defeated and something bad was going to happen.”
LeeAnn met her PPP case manager, Terri, who was one of the first people she’d met in years who actually seemed to care about her health. (“She’s amazing. I absolutely love her,” LeeAnn says.) She detoxed first with the help of methadone and then suboxone. In January 2025, she moved into a recovery house in South Philadelphia. The facility and its programming gave her life structure.
“I needed that. When I first got sober, I didn’t know how to live,” she says. “When you’re homeless, you don’t even shower. I had to be reminded of these things, like, ‘Did you shower? Did you brush your teeth? Did you take your meds?’”
LeeAnn is still in the recovery house, but she’s now the manager. She is working as a waitress and is addressing outstanding legal issues. She sees a future where she has a 9 to 5 job and is reunited with her children, ages 9 and 14.
“What drives me is I look at myself nine months ago and I see the growth in myself. I really like the person I’m becoming. It’s hard work, but when I stop challenging myself that's when I fail,” she says. “As long as I compare myself to myself, I’ll do alright.”
One lesson she’s learned from her own days of using narcotics: It’s impossible to force someone to quit.
“I firmly believe a person has to be ready to recover, like a closed mouth doesn’t get fed,” she says. “If they’re not ready, it won’t work, because being sober is work.”
But when someone’s ready to try sobriety, having the support of an organization like PPP and a person like Terri is the difference between success and failure.
“At the end of the day, we’re all the same person just trying to get another day sober,” she says.