What is a Sober Living Home and How Do They Work?

Vanderburgh House sees a world where every person in recovery has access to a supportive, healthy, and safe home environment built on respect, focused on recovery, and lead by peers. Residents live together as a family to develop the tools and strengthen their character in order to live free from substance abuse. These homes allow for independence while guided by a set of recovery-focused house rules, standards, and expectations. Visit the Vanderburgh House website to learn more about their sober homes. Halfway houses are similar to sober living homes, but halfway houses are generally more strict. Residents of halfway houses are typically required to be enrolled or have participated in substance abuse treatment services.

• With a variety of treatment programs and compassionate staff, you’re sure to find the next step toward freedom.
• Most of recovery homes are privately owned or owned by treatment organizations.
• It offered a setting that is readily available and flexible for people at all stages of the recovery cycle and in many different living situations.
• For some individuals, the limited structure offered by freestanding SLHs could invite association with substance using friends and family and thus precipitate relapse.
• These living spaces also offer the newly sober individual the benefit of time to ease their transition back into independent living.
• If you’re ready to take the next step in your recovery, consider attending an outpatient program while living in a sober home.

The number of residents depends on the size of the home or licensed beds in a facility. In most sober-living environments, bedrooms are shared, but some do provide individual rooms. Typically, there are rules about shared living spaces and individual room maintenance and chores, visitor hours, meal times, curfews and Twelve Step meeting requirements.

Quality Standards of Sober Living Homes

The sober living arrangement is so much more rewarding when all residents chip in and help each other. Sober homes are great for individuals that want to live in a supportive, drug-free community. Residents aren’t required to have completed rehab to join most sober homes, but there are other requirements for all residents. Aftercare plans are programs designed to facilitate long-term sobriety for people who have graduated from formal treatment programs.

Primary outcomes consisted or self report measures of alcohol and drug use. Secondary outcomes included measures of legal, employment, medical, psychiatric and family problems. Some measures assessed the entire 6 months between data collection time points. Others, such as the Addiction Severity Index, assessed shorter time periods of 30 days or less.

Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services

To join a sober house, residents must pay their own rent, which could range anywhere from $500 to $5,000 per month, depending on the location and whether certain houses include meals and other services. Residents may not have to pay for utilities at all, making housing very affordable. Some sober living houses have a zero-tolerance policy in effect regarding the above rules and residents may be evicted from the house for any violation.1 Others are a bit more lenient with certain rules and stricter with others.

We therefore suggest that there is a need to pay attention to the community context where those interventions are delivered. It was noteworthy that a wide variety of individuals in both programs had positive outcomes. There were no significant differences within either program on outcomes among demographic subgroups or different referral sources. In addition, it is important to note that residents were able to maintain improvements even after they left the SLHs. By 18 months nearly all had left, yet improvements were for the most part maintained.

The Difference Between Sober Living and Halfway Houses

This may include creating a website, advertising in relevant publications, and reaching out to treatment centers and other referral sources. Even if you aren’t the best networker or businessperson, those with good intentions who take time to ensure that every resident has an opportunity to recover in a safe environment, will be recognized. The challenge for the person in early recovery is that he or she usually returns to the same environment and relationships that aided and enabled the original substance abuse or co-occurring disorder. Refugio House, however, is a drug and alcohol-free community of peers who actively support one another along the path to recovery. Once the resident gains a solid foundation, they will transition to less structured or basic sober living.