The problems Cochran and Freeman say they identified include Bridges to Change staff members treating house residents with disrespect, scant resources like personal hygiene products and cookware for residents, Bridges to Change failing to secure the contracted program vendors Cochran wanted to work with, clients being randomly separated from their mentors, and residents not being allowed to see their children in foster care as punishment for offenses as minor as swearing in the house.

… Freeman tells the Mercury that conditions at Diane Wade House got noticeably worse after Cochran was fired. Those in leadership positions at Bridges to Change filled in for Cochran until they found a permanent replacement, and Freeman, along with several residents, said relations between Bridges to Change employees and residents were tense, and residents’ complaints weren’t being listened to. But when Freeman tried to bring up her concerns with Bridges to Change leadership, she was brushed aside, and stripped of some of her key duties. It was the distress caused by this treatment, Freeman says, that prompted her to take a leave of absence.

“For me, the impact that it had on me as a Black woman was horrific,” Freeman says. “And I watch the women relive this terrorization over and over—I just had a really hard time. So I did my best for the women, but eventually I just couldn’t work like that.”