With belt-tightening happening all over the city to help make up for the city's budget shortfall this year, one thing on the chopping block is the Matrix House drug rehab facility. But ask the people who went through the program and they'll tell you that Matrix House was their second chance.
"This program saved my life. It made me a better person," says Charles Deas, a graduate of the program.
Deas said he didn't care about anything or anyone except his next fix or his next drink until he went through Matrix House in 1997.
"Before that, I wouldn't be here. Because the police are here and I'd probably be in jail before I leave," he said.
He says now he's been sober for 15 years and still goes to the Matrix House at least once a week. He says the success rate with patients at Matrix House has been extraordinary in its history, and he says closing it down could be a death wish for other addicts and alcoholics in need of help.
"So closing the Matrix House is like closing Shands emergency room," he says.
Another former addict, Michelle Weaver, says she was in and out of jail constantly before she went to the Matrix House. Now, she says she's been sober since 2004 and credits every year of sobriety to the Matrix House.
"It wasn't until I actually got into this program that they taught me there was a different way of life."
Weaver agrees that defunding the Matrix House could be deadly to those in need of help.
"I don't think they'll make it. They'll get right out of jail just like I did so many times and go right back to the way they were living."
Sheriff John Rutherford says he's $4.3 million dollars short of keeping the program funded. He told city council Tuesday that if they gave him back the $8.8 million he was able to save from the JSO budget, he would not only be able to
