A SOBER HOUSING
SOBER housing
A SOBER HOUSING VISION
September 1999Some day there will be clusters of safe and sober
housing throughout the United States. These clusters will be a
variety of sizes that will include individual houses, apartments,
and congregate living accommodations. There will be a mixture of
housing with normal-cost apartments for recovery veterans and
low-cost, supervised shared housing for those in early recovery. In
many accommodations there will be specially designed housing
sections for women and/or men with children that have play areas
and childcare. Sober housing clusters will be designed to
accommodate persons who are physically and mentally challenged
Sober housing clusters will host self-help meetings and
educational workshops. The clusters will include meeting spaces to
host self-help activities, recreational and social events. They
will have a democratic culture and a high level of recovery
enthusiasm.
Housing clusters will become islands of sobriety in our alcohol
and drug using society. Sober housing will become a source of
recovery assistance for alcoholics, addicts and family members.
They will serve not only those who are fully into their addiction,
but those who are in their earlier stages. Sober housing
communities of stable recovering persons can easily absorb newly
recovering persons into their community
Currently many sober living houses are trying to meet the needs
of newly recovering persons without having a core of stable
recovering residents or the management resources to meet their
recovery service needs.
The rationale for cluster housing is that the self-help learning
process comes in bits and pieces. The greater the exposure to a
comprehensive recovery environment with many recovery activities
and a predominance of recovering people, the greater chance a
person has to learn recovery. The need for a balance of recovery
experience became evident when twelve-step meetings dominated by
newcomers were not as effective in assisting recovery as those
meetings where most members have long-term stable recovery.Sober
Living Network
PO BOX 5235, SANTA MONICA, CA 90409
(310) 396-5270 FAX 452-2050
[email protected]
COALITION QUESTIONSLocal sober living coalitions are raising
interesting issues during their monthly meetings. Below are a
couple of these issues.
COED SOBER LIVING HOMES Members of the San Fernando Valley Sober
Living Coalition discussed setting a policy that assures coed sober
living homes respect the privacy rights of both male and female
residents. It was felt that each sex should have totally separate
sleeping and bathroom areas separated by a locked door at night.
The California licensing regulations state that the licensee shall
ensure minimal personal security and privacy which will include but
not be limited to the following:
1) Separate and adequate toilet, hand washing, and bathing
facilities for females and males. Such facilities shall be in
proximity of designated sleeping areas.
2) Separate and adequate sleeping areas for females and males.
Such areas shall be enclosed by permanent walls, which extend from
the floor to the ceiling and a permanent door.
3) Twenty-four (24) hour staff coverage.
STATE OCCUPANCY CODE The San Fernando Sober Living Coalition
voted to have all member homes meet state occupancy code. The
agreed interpretation of the code is that sleeping areas should
meet the standard of 60 sq. ft. per person, 120 sq. ft. for two
residents, and 50 sq. ft. per additional resident. It was
interesting to find out that the state alcohol and drug facility
licensing agency does not require licensed facilities to meet the
state occupancy code.
QUALITY CONTROL
ORGANIZING LOCAL COALITIONS
Quality control is best achieved by organizing local community
sober living coalitions. Coalitions can adopt health, safety and
management guidelines that provide a format for sober living homes
peer review each other.
Local control and peer review will result in greater quality
assurance than would licensing, certification or registration by
either the State Department of Alcohol and Drug Program (ADP) or
one of their agent organizations. During the seventies' recovery
homes and twelve step homes were assured that State licensing and
certification would not require them to be high cost clinical
treatment programs. After twenty some years over ninety percent of
the alcohol and drug licensed and certified facilities are clinical
treatment programs.
LA County developed a Quality Control Plan and is in process of
organizing local sober living coalitions that involve information
sharing and peer quality assurance reviews. The local coalitions
plan to print a brochure of their participating members for
distribution.
