Carlton Hill’s life is a powerful testament to redemption: Once trapped in a cycle of addiction, homelessness, and despair, Carlton now leads the Changed Life Recovery Program at the Frederick Rescue Mission, guiding men through the very journey that saved his life.
Carlton’s path wasn’t always marked by hope. Despite serving as an associate minister alongside his wife Saundra at a church in Washington, D.C., Carlton struggled privately with feelings of inadequacy and rejection.
Haunted by pain from his past, he turned to cocaine to numb the ache, masking his inner turmoil rather than confronting it.
As his addiction deepened, his absences became noticeable. He would disappear for nights at a time. Eventually, his pastor confronted him. Carlton stood before his congregation, publicly confessing his addiction, overwhelmed by shame.
What followed was a painful cycle: multiple stints in rehab, followed by relapses. Carlton’s marriage unraveled. After stealing Saundra’s car during a relapse, she made the heartbreaking decision to file for divorce. Both were devastated, but she knew she had to protect herself.
At his lowest point, a minister drove Carlton to the Frederick Rescue Mission. It was there that everything began to change. Carlton encountered not just recovery, but the living presence of Jesus. “I came to know Him,” Carlton recalls, “not just know about Him.”
But recovery didn’t shield him from life’s tragedies. While in the program, Carlton received the news no parent should ever have to hear: his only son—his namesake—had been shot and killed on the streets of D.C. Despite the crushing grief, Carlton did not return to addiction. He stayed the course, sustained by God’s grace.
Today, Carlton keeps a bullet on his desk—not as a symbol of violence, but as a reminder of the depths from which God lifted him.
As Carlton mourned the loss of his son at his funeral, a godly woman came to him with a word of encouragement: “God says he’s going to give you many sons.” Carlton tucked those words away, too buried in sorrow to fully receive them.
After graduating from the Changed Life Recovery Program, Carlton pursued a degree and became a certified addiction counselor. Seven years into his sobriety, he and Saundra remarried—a restoration of not only their relationship, but of the life they once dreamed of together. Carlton eventually returned to the Frederick Rescue Mission—not as a resident, but as a leader. For the past 15 years, he has mentored and walked alongside countless men battling addiction and despair. And in doing so, he realized the promise spoken at his son’s funeral had come true: Carlton Hill has become the father of many sons.
