OXFORD, N.C. — At a time when the country is grappling with increased substance abuse due to the pandemic, a recovery house in Granville County is about to welcome its first clients.

What You Need To Know

  • An Oxford pastor is opening a new recovery house for women

  • Pastor Ronnie Morton is a recovered addict and believes peer support is crucial

  • Hope House will start accepting clients July 1

Pastor Ronnie Morton is a leading force behind Hope House in Oxford, a fairly rural area. He was sick of seeing drug problems in the community so he decided to do something about it.

“There’s a lady that lives in this house, and she’s probably in her 90s. She was afraid to come out of her house because of the drug activity in this neighborhood. I promised her that I was going to change the neighborhood,” Morton said. “You can hear the birds sing. Before you only heard gunfire.”

He’s a man of his word, and the first thing on the chopping block was a home that used to stand on Orange Street.

“This used to be a drug house here,” Morton said.

However, he isn’t just tearing things down.

“Where this house stands, it was a dilapidated old house that people would stay in at night and now look at what has transpired,” Morton said.

It’s a 180-degree transformation from drug house to recovery house.

“Get rid of the old and come back with new. But first teach them because you can build a new house, but if you don’t build the people, they will tear a new house down,” Morton said.

He knows the pain and hard work it takes to rebuild because he’s been there.

“Having been a recovered addict myself is proof that you must have experience of how people think. They want to change, but they have no power to change,” Morton said.

Faith is his foundation, believing that people are good and they just need someone to show them the way.

“So that’s why I feel obligated. I was delivered from it by someone helping me,” Morton said.

Morton is planning to have a ribbon-cutting ceremony in mid-June and start accepting clients on July 1. This first house, which will focus on helping women, can accommodate four clients and will have a live-in peer support guide. He also has plans to build a men’s recovery house in the same community.

Hope House is an initiative under the nonprofit Treasures of Joy, which is part of Greater Joy Baptist Church.