ORLANDO, Fla. -- Drug addiction doesn’t discriminate. It can happen to anybody from any background and any skin color.

  • Hispanic American community struggling w/ drug addiction
  • Hogar Crea program designed for Hispanic men toward sobriety 
  • Hogar Crea originates from Puerto Rico

“You know how you wake up every day in the morning to go to work? Well, I used to get up every morning to use drugs,” recalled Luis Mendez, Florida State Director of Hogar Crea.

He was in Delaware with his family when he first got into drugs.

“I started with the basic -- marijuana, alcohol. Then I graduated to cocaine, then went into heroine, and then heroine and crack,” Mendez said.

He said his life started falling apart.

“(I was) stealing from family, in and out of jail, (and) not being a responsible father,” Mendez said.

In 2007, his family saved his life when they sent him to Orlando to take part of a rehabilitation program.

His family knew about it from Puerto Rico, where Hogar Crea started.

At Hogar Crea, men do therapy, house work and what they’re mostly known for back on the island -- selling desserts. (Paula Machado, staff)

With two locations in Florida, the one in Orlando houses men struggling with addiction for a 20-month period of rehabilitation. They do therapy, house work and what they’re mostly known for back on the island -- selling desserts.

“We have a bakery here. And with what the bakery makes, the residents go out, which is another therapy, and we’re known for flans,” Mendez said.

The sales from the bakery pay to run the house. Residents going through treatment don’t pay a dime to stay.

Mendez, 11 years sober and now in charge, has lived and seen how drug addiction can happen to anyone.  

“It’s not just the young, it’s not the middle age, the higher class. I think it’s an epidemic. It’s hurting everybody, not only the person that is using but is also hurting the community,” Mendez explained.

In fact, when talking about the Hispanic community, drug fatalities have increased 52.5 percent from 2014 to 2016, according to data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It’s those numbers that keep Mendez clean and inspiring others to do the same.

“Not only am I helping someone else, (but) I’m continuing to help myself,” he said.

Hogar Crea International just celebrated its 50th anniversary rehabilitating folks struggling with addiction.  

With two locations in Florida, the one in Orlando houses men struggling with addiction for a 20-month period of rehabilitation. (Paula Machado, staff)