I’m thinking of using my rental as a sober living house

[Cameron Davis]

Hi Everyone, I was wondering if anyone has experience with using your rental property as a halfway house for companies such as “oxford house”. I was talking with them and they pay fair market rent plus a significant premium $ on top of the monthly rent. It sounds like it could be a good idea. What’s your thoughts? Thanks 

[Thomas Rogers]

Could you text me, I would like to learn more about starting a rental 

Trogers

[Jennifer Crisp]

Quote from @James Wise:

Originally posted by @Mitchell Lyle:

Most of the replies are completely untrue. There are some plenty of people that are legitimately trying to stay sober and benefit from the camaraderie of living with others in a similar spot. Here area few thoughts.

1. Hire a sober house manager who has significant clean time. Recovering addicts will listen to someone who has been in their shoes and is knowledgeable. You can offer free rent in exchange for specific duties.

2. You have to drug test and these are expensive. Factor it in to your costs.

3. Demand they find work within a specific time period unless they are unable due to mental or physical disability. They need to be recievinf governmental assistance in this case and make them volunteer if unable to work.

4. Make them attend 3-5 12 step meetings a week and have them provide documentation similar to the courts.

5. Charge weekly instead of monthly. Eg if you charge 1300 a month for 3 bedroom charge 150 weekly and fill 4 beds (1 room for sober house manager) = $2400 gross. 

 That's a tough way to make a living man.

I agree 3 to meetings a week is ridiculous number one when you are sober and you have to find a job you don't have any money you don't have any resources and in certain recovery houses they make you get up at a certain time in the morning and leave the house to go find a job and you have to be gone for so many hours just trying to go find a job I've done these programs going to meetings and constantly talking about drugs and alcohol and listening to people's stories is I think half of the reason why people go back to using I went to an AA or NA rodeo one day on a Saturday and for 5 hours all they did was have people get up there and tell their sob story about addiction and about that lifestyle it depressed me it showed me how not to run a sober house how to not run a halfway house The halfway house is a joke because they have you leave the house by 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning and give you no guidance give you no help give you nothing to get you to where you going to be and really help you get a job I was in a position where I was in Pennsylvania and a halfway house that made you leave by 9:00 in the morning and you can come back until 4:00 or 5:00 in the afternoon I had no money I had no phone I had basically no resources and no knowledge of where I was even at I stayed sober thank God I went to meetings but sometimes I couldn't get to a meeting that they required because I had no way of getting there in the time of night that they had the meetings and after being gone all day trying to find a job it was a ridiculous self-sabotaging program then I got in touch with another program and they suggested a sober house because I would have more leeway unless restrictions and by the way at the recovery house halfway house that I was at My last night there or the second to the last night that I was there One of the roommates was doing heroin the whole night in and out of the bathroom up and down and it was very distracting and nobody said anything I didn't get any sleep because she was up and down the whole night and I knew what she was doing I felt her energy The 12-step program the AA program is not a bad program but it didn't help me stay sober I kept myself sober personally if I had a halfway house or a sober house I would require only one meeting per week but I would also require an hour everyday of journaling and some kind of education as far as to their goals and and to their plan of action and dreams and desires I would do a totally different program because I've been in that position if I would have kept going to meetings and doing that kind of program I would have began using again the sober house doesn't require 10,000 meetings it's too much for a person and it only puts your mind in a mentality and the thought to use again and the desire and the trigger... To actually have a sober house successful where she can guide and assist everyday to that person to be successful and to help them navigate the area they're in have an assistance of a driver to get the people to the places they need to get to on a daily basis and a structured plan that they have to do and figure out to get everything done that they need to get done and to also get a job and become successful sober houses will allow you to leave the house for the weekend or allow you to not be there consistently and you have a lot of freedom but if you don't have any support and you have no resources and you have no money and you have no phone it's a setup for disaster because you have too much time on your hands and no organization no guidance 12 step programs and AANA are all a good thing if the person can do that route but a person like me found the depression and repetition of using through stories and that wasn't my way to stay sober and to stay on a lane of being a successful citizen again... People need help it's hard to figure out and navigate when you're in a totally different state with no phone and no help and it's very hard to get help and hard to ask for help hard to ask for money and hard to actually make it The house managers and the people running it want money with in a week or two after you get out of prison or jail... I've been through it I know the process I know the procedure I know how to help and I know how to actually have them succeed instead of failing or going back to their old life because they feel like they can't make it because of no help or guidance from that house and also when you don't have food and you're in the recovery house and halfway houses will give you food will have house food sober houses are different because they don't have much food for the house you have to provide that yourself and you don't have clothes it's all very stressful and figuring it out with no help on the outside world sucks but I would only make one meeting a week and the rest of the time I would make them do the nightly meetings daily meetings with the house have it set up where they have to work on themselves daily Yes they do have to find jobs during certain times during the day and be productive and show their productiveness every day and where they applied and what they did and have other programs other people available 10 agencies whatever can be agencies temp agencies to assist in putting those persons in a job right away at least have something to focus on I couldn't find a job in Pennsylvania I applied everywhere nobody wanted to hire me so there's a lot to this scenario but three to five meetings a week is ridiculous because that takes up too much I'm an energy I would focus on another route another way of making them successful and making them educate themselves in another way instead of focusing on the addiction because then you want to go back to using

[Jennifer Crisp]

Also the last thing I have to say about this halfway house over house deal they did have a place where you could go during the day to help you build the resume and to give you some resources and they had a place around the corner that helped me with clothes because everything that I owned was in a New Jersey and I had nothing in Pennsylvania not even a phone and it took a person from an NA meeting that I met to give me the money so I could put the money to get a phone so there's a lot to this recovery house sober house living and resources and accurate organizational guidance is required to help a person it was really ridiculous but it showed me the system it showed me the money that these houses were making how many people were in the houses and the ins and outs of what to do and what not to do if you were running one and how to actually help people.. people get frustrated irritated and give up and go back to their old life because of the way it's run handled structure of the program it's overwhelming and it's a setup for most people with addiction to go back to their old lifestylebecause of all the rules regulations no guidance strict and no reason for kicking a person out of the house when they don't have anything even a phone I could have done so much more being able to have a phone guided to me where I was able to do a lot of online applying and I would have been more successful if I would have been able to sit in that house and have a computer sitting there where I could have built my resume where I could have done everything that I did at this other program that only gave me One benefit and that was acupuncture during one of their structured meetings that had someone come in and do things for people with addictions it wouldn't be hard for a sober halfway house to let a person hang out but make them do things during the day productive for work and then if I needed to get places I didn't have any money so I couldn't even barely get on the bus and I even got lost getting on the bus trying to get to a job interview and I got so lost and it was so much walking and it was so much energy that I was late getting back to the recovery house and I was going to get in trouble but like I told them I got lost I called from someone else's phone but it was very confusing it was a lot of navigating and I found the sober house and I left and when I went to the sober House it was kind of the same situation trying to get around trying to find the job and when I went to a meeting I met a gentleman who was interested in me sexually he was only being nice because he was trying to have sex with me but he was able to at least help me with a little bit of money so I could get a phone it was sad it was depressing it was enlightening and there's a whole other way to do it just because someone's sober doesn't mean that they Don't have other addictions that are just as bad as being drunk or high I've noticed people can say that they're sober for 20 years but they have a sexual addiction or they have a spending addiction or they have other issues and being sober doesn't mean that you're right in the head because half of the people that are sober are still mentally screwed up in other ways they just don't know it admit it or acknowledge it and a whole other way needs to be shown to have people truly successful in the matrix but you're supposed to be out of the house during certain hours You're only supposed to be looking for a job supposedly I got in trouble for going and getting groceries because I finally got food stamps The the director of the house came over and tried to be on my *** because during the time I was supposed to be finding a job supposedly even though I try to find a job for 4 hours and they only sent me to the library and at the library you got to have a library card to use the computers it was all a joke but I was getting groceries and I was seeing walking down the street with groceries or at the grocery store down the road from the library and I got in trouble just for getting groceries because I was sick and tired of eating the crap that the people were eating in the house and the food that was in the house it was all processed and I was into vegetables there was no vegetables it's a crazy game and if we're really trying to help people if the nonprofits are trying to help people they've got to have all the resources in that house and available at all times to cater to a person so they can be successful The way everything is organized and run by what I have seen being in two halfway houses and one sober house in a whole state where I did not live or have any help or any resources as far as people showed me what to do to help people be successful and what would have helped me number one if I would have had a phone from the beginning I would have been able to gravitate things but you go two weeks without a phone actually 3 weeks without a phone in this world and you don't know the area and no money how are you going to get to where you need to go if you don't even know how to get there if you don't even know how to get on the bus and navigate the bus and you don't have a phone to help you it's crazy something as simple as getting me a phone right away would have helped something as simple as a computer in the house where I could have done the resume where I could have done everything that I took so many hours every day getting on a bus going to the place where I could do things on the computer and then coming back cost me money time energy and frustration having lists of all the resources in the area having a phone clothes computer and guidance would have changed the course of what I went through and I would have been successful but instead I wasn't and I went through a lot of chaos with other individuals living at the house and being lied about and getting kicked out and going back to my old life so it was a disaster in the long run and frustrating and a lot of people are not successful in those situations because of the structure 3 to 5 meetings a week is ridiculous especially when the meetings aren't close to where you're at and you have no money and no transportation and you meet people that may be sober but in the long run they're still screwed up in the head and only program you with using again