TAMPA, Fla. — The Opal Recovery House offers women in recovery from addictions and eating disorders a high-end home environment that owners say they can be proud to call home.
- Opal Recovery House offers help
- Help for women recovering from addictions and eating disorders
- Opal Recovery House
“I know I wanted it to be a clean, safe place," said Opal House owner Corey Maita. The homes are tastefully decorated, complete with white leather couches, wall covering flat screen TVs and even an in ground pool in the backyard.
Maita and his mother Beverly Womack opened their first home in Tampa in January 2015.
“Probably about a year and a half later, we did Opal House 2”, said Womack, “and then in the past couple of months we did Opal 3, so the word got out. A lot of women are getting well here.”
Hannah Park is one of the 30 women who are recovering in Opal House. She has lived in Opal House 3 for more than a year.
“It's made me feel good about myself," Park said, "and it's given me motivation to do all the things I'm doing that I just never had before.” Womack says her girls are beating the odds and she show know how to do it.
Womack fought and won her own battle with addiction years ago with help from her mother, Opal Workman. That’s why the homes are named after her.
“I like to say I'm alive today because I had a mother that prayed for me and that didn't give up on me.”, Womack said. Now, she serves as a certified recovery therapist in her homes.
Her son Corey cashed in much of his retirement he had saved when he was president of his own company to open up the recovery houses. He says growing up watching his mother work through her recovery while living in not so pleasant surroundings made the Opal House more than just a good idea, but a passion.
“I can speak to the families because I lived that piece of it," Maita said, “I think there's a better understanding what she went through and the reasons why she went through it, that before I really didn't comprehend.” The mother/son duo plan to open a third Opal House for men in recovery in the near future.