Recovery Advocates March on Baltimore City Hall

A march, prayers and public testimony about addiction and recovery marked a rally at Baltimore’s City Hall to protest funding cuts aimed at the I Can’t We Can recovery program, the Baltimore Sun reported June 11.

The program, which operates halfway houses and provides clinical services, stands to lose $350,000 in city and state funding currently provided via Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems (BSAS). The program was founded by a former heroin addict.

“All these people here, they used to be drug addicts in the streets,” said program graduate Al Moye, one of about 100 people in recovery attending the protest.

BSAS said funding to I Can’t We Can is being cut because of financial irregularities, problems with infrastructure at some of its facilities, and because the program’s state license has expired. “As sad as the situation is, they have inhumane living conditions for addicts in their care,” said BSAS president Greg Warren. “They have no accounting for how the taxpayers’ money is being spent … We encourage them to apply in future years as they fix the grave concerns we have,” Warren said.

I Can’t We Can employees and current and former clients are calling on city leaders to intervene.

The Baltimore chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is among the groups calling on city officials to intervene on behalf of I Can’t We Can.