Social media Used to Reunite Native Americans with Those Caught Up in Fake Sober Homes

AUDIO – TRAVESTY –

Sept. 15, 2023 – For months, fraudulent sober living homes have been targeting tribal reservations across the western U.S., including the Navajo Nation and White Mountain Apache Tribe, coercing vulnerable people into coming to facilities in Phoenix.

The group homes then billed Arizona’s Medicaid program for treatments that were often never provided, while leaving those in their care in unsafe environments.

After he disappeared, Jones says she only sporadically heard from Andrew, who is originally from Blanding, Utah.

“I called (the) Shiprock police station,” she says. “And they said, ‘Okay, we have found the address of where he is. And we’ll get back with you.’ So I kept on calling the police station for about a week or so. And I didn’t hear from them after that. So I just started searching on my own, online, of where he was. And the (last) place that I called, they told me that he wasn’t there anymore. And it was just from home to home.”

In the next three months, Jones says Andrew didn’t reach out. She and her brother’s parents became increasingly worried.

“I came across a web page with Reva Stewart, her web page was to help these homeless people on the streets,” she says. “I had posted on there, ‘I’m looking for my brother if you find him,’ and she actually reached out to me and said, ‘Show me what he looks like.’”