What Is a Sober Living House?

Recovering addicts can practice life skills, such as paying rent and maintaining a clean living space, while surrounded by other sober individuals. Sober living houses are a potential living arrangement for individuals in early recovery after addiction treatment. Sober homes provide an excellent bridge between rehab programs and traditional society. However, residents aren’t required to have participated in rehab before living in most sober homes. Sober living homes provide an excellent transitional living situation after recovering addicts complete an inpatient rehab program or while continuing to attend outpatient treatment. These recovery homes help recovering addicts get back into the groove of independent living as they transition from an addiction treatment program back to the real world.

Opening a sober living home is not as easy as just buying or renting a home and opening the door to those in addiction or recovery. Whether it is a non-profit or private venture, a sober living home is a fully operational organization with customers, personnel, regulations, financial transactions and more. In the service I work in, our Oxford recovery house has evaluated well.

A Double Standard in Addiction Care?

Thus, they are optimal for residents who are capable of handling a fair amount of autonomy and who can take personal responsibility for their recovery. Expansion of freestanding SLHs in communities might therefore ease the burden on overwhelmed treatment systems. In communities that are unable to fund a sufficient number of treatment programs for individuals with substance use disorders, freestanding SLHs might be a clinically and economically effective alternative.

• This is achieved through required sobriety, recovery group attendance, and household participation.
• Generally, those that are staying at a sober living home will remain there for at least 90 days, but stays can be arranged for as long as necessary.
• Like other SLH models of recovery, residence are free to stay as long as they wish provide they comply with house rules (e.g., curfews, attendance at 12-step meetings) and fulfill their financial obligations.
• Research has shown that sober living homes are among the most effective and affordable resources in promoting life-long recovery from alcoholism and addiction.
• Others may not have a stable home environment and fearing relapse, want to continue the progress they’ve made in recovery.

Ascension provides start-up consulting services to individuals of communities interested in opening a sober living home. The study design used repeated measures analyses to test how study measures varied over time. Because the two types of houses served residents with different demographic characteristics, we conducted disaggregated longitudinal analyses for each. For a more complete description of the study design and collection of data see Polcin et al. (2010), Polcin et al. (in press) and Polcin, Korcha, Bond, Galloway and Lapp (in press).

The National Sober Living Association provides a range of services for our members, including but not limited to:

While living in a sober living home, residents have the chance to cohabitate with like-minded individuals all doing their best to hold on to sobriety. Performing these life skills will help you establish a routine you’ll use in your daily life. Also, living with other sober living residents will teach you interpersonal skills and how to apply them. During the first phase of development, Ascension will conduct a feasibility study to determine the best location, business model, referral sources and support services for the proposed sober living facility. Our expert staff will work with you to develop a budget and pro-forma financial analysis based on the realities of your unique situation and geography.

In their view, random assignment of participants to conditions was often appropriate for medication studies but often inappropriately applied when used to study residential services for recovery from addiction. This Recovery Review post is by David McCartney, who is an addiction medicine specialist and Clinical Lead at LEAP, a quasi-residential therapeutic community addiction treatment program in Scotland. He trained as a family medicine practitioner and spent much of his career in practice in inner-city Glasgow.

Recovery Advocacy

In a study of women offenders released from jails in New York City 71% indicated that lack of adequate housing was their primary concern. Our purpose here is to summarize the most salient and relevant findings for SLHs as a community based recovery option. We then expand on the findings by considering potential implications of SLHs for treatment and criminal justice systems. We also include a discussion of our plans to study the community context of SLHs, which will depict how stakeholder influences support and hinder their operations and potential for expansion. These measures were taken from the Important People Instrument (Zywiak, et al., 2002).

Finally, a transitional housing center with a sobriety requirement could be of great help if you’re struggling with housing insecurity, mainly due to addiction struggles. Julia Childs Heyl is a clinical social worker who focuses on mental health disparities, the healing of generational trauma, and depth psychotherapy. Following sober living rules can clearly help you develop sober habits, but they are not just guidelines for sober living. Breaking these rules can mean losing your place in your sober living home. You could be expelled right away, or you could be expelled when you break the rules more than once.

Lastly, halfway houses are often owned or sponsored by the state, while most sober-living houses are owned privately or by treatment facilities that want to provide continuing support for their patients. Addiction is a complex issue, and recovery is a continuous commitment. Once you’re finished a clinical treatment program, sober house it can be hard for many people to move right back into life, with all its responsibilities and potential triggers. You’re free to work or go to school while also being held accountable for your recovery. To keep residents safe, all successful sober homes have rules and regulations that you’re required to follow.

• Here, we endeavor to answer all parts of the question, “How do sober living homes work?
• Think about the environment that will inspire you most in recovery – one that will keep you going and set you up for success.
• Not only are they there to enforce rules, but they’re also there to help you with problems you might be having.
• Participating in a community of like-minded men helps to keep them from social scenes such as bars, nightclubs, and house parties where alcohol and drugs can be easily accessed.

Many people finishing treatment are nervous and scared to make the transition back into the real world because they fear they’ll fail. When you were in active addiction, the only relationship that mattered was the one you had with your substance of choice. A sober living home can be a place where you begin to create meaningful relationships and add value to your life. With expert guidance to navigate the challenges of opening a sober living facility, you’ll have peace of mind and more time to focus on providing the complete place of healing.