Former HGTV star Nicole Curtis shared the dark side of property management and home renovations in a recent post about her personal experience.
The “Rehab Addict” star took to social media on Friday, May 1, with before and after photos from a “crack house.”
Nicole Curtis’ Squatter Situation
The Detroit, Michigan, renovation specialist revealed that one of her properties was occupied with squatters, forcing her to go to court to “evict” them.
“I have been asked, ‘are you smoking crack?’ when some people see the projects I take on,” Curtis shared via Instagram. “I won’t say this was my first CrackHouse, but it was my first where the crackheads squatted and actually, got mail here. If you didn’t know, in Detroit, you have to formally evict people, even if they had no right to be there. It’s a long process and we, finally, cashed these guys out. Which means, they took cash, signed a release and left.”
While Curtis was forced to pay the occupants in order for them to vacate her property, the designer admitted that was not the worst part of the experience.
“Sadly, I had no idea they had a dog trapped up in here. She was abused badly, malnourished and had a litter of puppies. There’s a special place in H for that and while I felt bad for the house —-houses I could fix,” she added. “The poor mama dog didn’t make it, her puppies were adopted out.”
The home, which was badly damaged by the illegal occupants, has since been fully renovated.
“I’m going to find new owner for this house, if you’re looking in Detroit -let’s talk. A proper neighbor means everything,” she continued, adding four red heart emoji. “And before all the haters come at me —-this is not making fun of addiction or lighting drug issues. These are facts. Most everyone on our crews had gone through a recovery and we are proud to support all -I wore a respirator and hazmat suit to clear all this stuff out -this house had a needle closet where they put a hole in the door and tossed needles in (it was 2.5 feet deep).”
Nicole Curtis’ Show Canceled
Curtis’ latest life update comes just two months after HGTV pulled the plug on her beloved series.
In February, the network cut ties with the longtime host after a video surfaced of Curtis using a racial slur.
“I want to be clear: the word in question is wrong and not part of my vocabulary and never has been, and I apologize to everyone,” she told TMZ at the time. “I’m grateful for the 15-year journey we’ve shared. It’s been a meaningful chapter, but my focus isn’t on my career. My focus, at this moment is rightfully on my relationships, and my community — the people who truly know my character and where my heart is.”
She later announced that she plans to continue sharing her project with fans via her YouTube channel.
“We dug up my old YouTube channel and you can subscribe there as my guys have things in motion. (and by things, I mean house episodes, Behind the scenes and anything else they conjure up from my days of really being on a job site as I have been for 30 + years -not just to pretend on TV),” she wrote, per TV Insider. “If you want to check it out-there’s some old videos from Dollar houses on there. And the shows are still airing on a lot of streaming networks like ROKU and Apple TV.”
