South Bronx Building Once Home to Young Lords’ ‘People’s Detox Center’ to Get New Life as Arts & Wellness Hub
By Daniel Parra - City Limits
Image credit: Carlos Ortiz
The South Bronx is iconic for being a historic birthplace of hip-hop and salsa music.
But one lesser-known tidbit about the neighborhood: it was once home to a program, founded by Puerto Rican activist group the Young Lords, that used ear acupuncture to treat addiction—which later became a nationally implemented therapy for substance-abuse recovery.
On Wednesday, South Bronx Unite began renovating the former South Bronx’s Lincoln Recovery Center, a rehab facility that, in the 1970s, housed the so-called People’s Detox Center, founded by activists demanding better health services for the Mott Haven neighborhood.
SBU, an environmental justice organization, campaigned for 15 years to preserve the site and renovate it as a community space for culture, education, and holistic medicine.
