Alissa Zhu

They entered treatment. Drugs, overdoses and deaths followed. Baltimore addiction programs draw patients with free housing while collecting millions. Some say one program—PHA Healthcare—offered little help.

Our reporting last year found many patients of PHA Healthcare had relapsed, overdosed and some even died. In one case, a 13-month-old boy starved. When we shared details with a top health official, she called them "just horrifying."

www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/pu...

Maryland closed PHA Healthcare. For some patients, little has changed. Patients of PHA Healthcare, a treatment program in Baltimore, were housed in drug-ridden buildings where many overdosed, an investigation reported last year. Some are still there.

The story of PHA Healthcare didn't end when Maryland closed the program.

Though patients got new providers, many continued living in the same buildings, operated by the same people. Treatment was still over Zoom, lead by the very same overseas counselors.

www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/pu...

Maryland closed PHA Healthcare. For some patients, little has changed. Patients of PHA Healthcare, a treatment program in Baltimore, were housed in drug-ridden buildings where many overdosed, an investigation reported last year. Some are still there.

Maryland ended treatment at a troubled provider. For some, little has changed, @alissazhu.bsky.social reports. (via @thebaltimorebanner.com)

Baltimore Banner wins Pulitzer Prize for coverage of overdose crisis The Baltimore Banner was awarded the Pulitzer Prize on Monday for groundbreaking local journalism that exposed Baltimore as the deadliest large city in the nation for drug overdoses.

It was a two-year effort spanning multiple newsrooms with brilliant co-reporters @jessicagallagher.bsky.social, Nick Thieme, @mercohn.bsky.social, @justinfenton.bsky.social and @adampwillis.bsky.social. What an incredible and surreal honor. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/lo...

WE WON A PULITZER!

A big first for
@thebaltimorebanner.com &
@nytimes.com Local Investigations Fellowship.

Thank you to so many, especially those who trusted us with their stories, however painful or risky it may have been for them to share, because they knew it could make a difference.

They died in PHA Healthcare drug treatment. Their families still want answers. One mother of a former federal contractor who died while in PHA Healthcare’s housing said authorities should close the program permanently and punish its operators.

“Just because he got high doesn’t mean his life doesn’t matter,” said the sister of Rodney Myers, one of 13 people whose deaths were connected to PHA Healthcare, a drug treatment program.

“He was somebody, he was special to me. He was my hero.”

www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/pu...

They died in PHA Healthcare drug treatment. Their families still want answers. One mother of a former federal contractor who died while in PHA Healthcare’s housing said authorities should close the program permanently and punish its operators.

By @alissazhu.bsky.social: Their loved ones died while in drug treatment at PHA Healthcare. They still want answers. (📸: @jessicagallagher.bsky.social) (via @thebaltimorebanner.com)

State crackdown on Medicaid fraud kicks off with first guilty plea A Maryland woman pleaded guilty to defrauding Medicaid of millions for mental health services she never provided.

Scam Medicaid once, shame on you. Scam Medicaid twice...?

This is the first case to come out of the state's crackdown on fraud among addiction and mental health providers. More than 100 more have been referred to investigators, health officials say www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/pu...

Banner investigation prompts new addiction treatment oversight bill A Baltimore Democrat is pushing a new bill to improve state oversight of drug addiction treatment centers.

A Baltimore lawmaker read our story about PHA Healthcare and is now calling for better oversight of addiction treatment to prevent patient relapse and death www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/cr...

Maryland prisons are awash in handmade weapons. Contraband recoveries more than tripled The state corrections department recorded a discovery rate for weapons in its facilities at about 13 per 100 average daily population.

New: Discoveries of handmade weapons in Maryland prisons/Baltimore jails rose by 375% — an "extremely unusual" spike, report finds.
Prisoners are using the state's aging facilities to source raw materials (e.g. broken windows), corrections secretary says. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/cr...

Very proud of our team for winning a Polk Award today for Local Reporting on the city's overdose crisis. This is a big moment for @thebaltimorebanner.com — which has not even been publishing for 3 years — and signals that we have the talent and ambition to execute journalism at the highest level.

Baltimore's Overdose Crisis A Baltimore Banner and New York Times investigation into Baltimore’s overdose crisis.

Covering drug addiction and overdoses has been a newsroom-wide effort, with incredible reporting from more than a dozen colleagues. Congratulations to the whole
@thebaltimorebanner.com team. Read our reporting here: www.thebaltimorebanner.com/specials/ove...

They entered treatment. Drugs, overdoses and deaths followed. Baltimore addiction programs draw patients with free housing while collecting millions. Some say one program—PHA Healthcare—offered little help.

Then we published an investigation on the alarming growth of programs with unscrupulous practices as the state has struggled to regulate government-funded addiction treatment. At least 13 people died at a single program, including a baby who starved. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/pu...

Overdoses plague a generation of Black men in Baltimore and cities across America An investigation of millions of death records in partnership with The New York Times, Big Local News and nine newsrooms across the country reveals the extent to which drug overdose deaths have affecte...

We shared our data with news organizations across the country, which are writing about the toll of addiction on this generation of older Black men in their communities, catalyzing a long-overdue national conversation. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/pu...

A horrific number of older Black men are dying from overdoses in Baltimore Many are dying from fentanyl and other drugs. The hardest-hit are Black men in their 50s to 70s, a group that Baltimore’s changing economy left behind.

Next we highlighted the tremendous toll overdoses were taking on a single generation of older Black men, who had largely been overlooked in this country's opioid crisis. Senior apartments were among the top addresses for overdose deaths in the city. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/pu...

How Baltimore became the U.S. overdose capital The city was once hailed for its response to addiction. But as fentanyl flooded the streets and officials shifted priorities, deaths hit unprecedented heights.

Our first story explored how Baltimore became the overdose capital of the U.S. in recent years, with a fatality rate double that of any other major city's. During the same time, city leaders' attention in the issue waned. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/pu...

.@jessicagallagher.bsky.social, Nick Thieme and I spent two years examining how city & state leaders had responded to unbelievably high rates of drug overdose death. We won a lawsuit for autopsy records. We attended so many memorials.

The Banner wins Polk Award for coverage of Baltimore’s overdose crisis Baltimore Banner reporters Alissa Zhu, Jessica Gallagher and Nick Thieme have won the organization’s first George Polk Award for their local investigative work.

It is an extraordinary honor to receive a George Polk Award in Local Reporting for our coverage of Baltimore's overdose crisis, published by @thebaltimorebanner.com and @nytimes.com Local Investigations Fellowship.
www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/lo...

They entered treatment. Drugs, overdoses and deaths followed. Baltimore addiction programs draw patients with free housing while collecting millions. Some say one program—PHA Healthcare—offered little help.

So proud of @alissazhu.bsky.social & @jessicagallagher.bsky.social for the incredible reporting they put into this story. The 3rd investigative piece after a year+ of work, they dug deep into an addiction recovery program here in Baltimore: www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/pu...

They entered treatment. Drugs, overdoses and deaths followed. Baltimore addiction programs draw patients with free housing while collecting millions. Some say one company offered little help.

People enter drug treatment at their most vulnerable, seeking help.

In Baltimore, the Country's overdose capitol, a provider took that responsibility and created an environment where patients routinely relapsed and died.

www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/pu...

Addiction is a treatable disease. People can get better. Investing in drug treatment & affordable housing is a critical part of tackling the overdose crisis. But when operators come in to take advantage, it harms the many good providers in the system and, most of all, patients.

Records of deaths, overdoses & sexual assaults at programs are kept secret by the state health department, which has struggled to regulate and oversee the treatment field. The state can't even inspect or track this type of housing for patients. Some work to fix things has started already.

Inside, we found people desperate for a place to live, who often did not get the help they needed. The counseling was all virtual, and often delivered by unlicensed individuals who logged in from Nigeria.

They entered treatment. Drugs, overdoses and deaths followed. Baltimore addiction programs draw patients with free housing while collecting millions. Some say one company offered little help.

In the past year of reporting on overdoses in Baltimore, a treatment program kept coming up. We looked into it:

At least 13 deaths deaths since 2022.
This year a mom died, then her baby starved.
It operated in the shadows & got paid millions by the state.

www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/pu...