Odyssey House is the name of private not-for-profit organization established in 1967 in East Harlem to provide treatment and education for drug and alcohol addiction and victims of child abuse.

The first Odyssey House, in East Harlem, was established by Dr. Judianne Densen-Gerber, a resident psychiatrist working at Metropolitan Hospital in New York City who, dissatisfied with the practice of using drug replacement medications such as methadone as the primary therapeutic intervention, started a "drug free" programme in 1966.

[1][2] In 1979, New York magazine published a detailed article by investigative journalist Lucy Komisar alleging serious abuse and financial misconduct at Odyssey House, including that Densen-Gerber used residents as personal servants.

She paid back $20,000 in excessive personal expenses in order to close a state investigation into the organization.

Centres also launched in the Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria in 1977 and 1979 respectively, and in the New Zealand cities of Auckland and Christchurch in 1980 and 1985.