As a reporter, I always hope that my stories will have a positive impact on the lives of the people I write about.

But sometimes our stories can have negative consequences.

A thread.

Last year,  @amyjharris and I wrote about a drug rehab that had sent thousands of people to work at hundreds of for-profit companies, including Exxon, Shell and Walmart. https://www.revealnews.org/article/they-worked-in-sweltering-heat-for-exxon-shell-and-walmart-they-didnt-get-paid-a-dime/

The patients were worked to exhaustion and never paid. All their pay went to Cenikor.

Following our story, the Cenikor Foundation started struggling. Companies canceled contracts. Client numbers dropped. Former participants filed lawsuits.

Two years ago, about 120 patients lived at Cenikor's Baton Rouge facility. Last week, their numbers had dwindled to about 60.

Then coronavirus hit. Companies that use Cenikor workers started shutting down, cutting into Cenikor's revenue stream. I also had contacted Cenikor with a series of questions, for another story we will soon be releasing about the program (more on that later).

Suddenly and abruptly, Cenikor shut their long term program in Baton Rouge down. They told residents they had two days to find another place to live. They laid off most employees, told them to leave, and barred them from counseling or comforting residents.  https://www.revealnews.org/article/drug-rehab-shutters-amid-coronavirus-outbreak-sending-residents-scrambling/

“They came in and told us to get the hell out, more or less,” one counselor told me. “It was like, ‘Hurry, hurry, hurry.’ Didn’t want us to speak with no clients. They wouldn’t even let me say goodbye to them.”

Clients sat in shock or panicked. Some clients cried. Some yelled. Some immediately left; at least one person relapsed. Now, some residents are homeless, desperately searching for housing and stability in the middle of a pandemic.

“Man, we out here looking for a place to go right now,” one resident told me. “We’re basically homeless at the moment. It’s very stressful. Everybody else done washed their hands of us.”

As journalists, we always hope to have an impact, make things a little better.

Today, because of this rehab's closure, many of these people are struggling anew in a world that is far scarier than ever before.

This isn't quite the impact I had in mind.