More complaints file in from former residents of troubled ‘sober homes’

One bad apple? –

Oct. 23, 2020 – Shelton pitches himself as a reverend and a therapist. On LinkedIn, he claims several state medical credentials. His name doesn’t show up on a search for any licenses in the state Division of Professional Registration database. He and his business partner, Stacey Smith, run a series of mostly rundown homes in the city and the county that they call “The Community Counseling and Housing Services.” They take in people with drug addictions, alcoholics, people with mental illness and even adults on the autism spectrum, collect their disability checks, charge $500 or more for rent, and promise services that a series of former residents have told me in the past year never come.

Holley was being treated at Southeast Missouri Behavioral Health in Farmington for drug addiction.

“He made it out to be this good program,” Holley says of Shelton, who recruited him for his “sober homes” when Holley left Southeast Missouri Behavioral Health. “In reality, they’re just taking people’s money.”