Does anyone know how to get started running a Halfway House?

[Derrick Young]

What is the best way to get started in running a halfway house.

[James Hamling]

@Derrick Young that is the most odd-ball question I could ever think of on here, and even more odd-ball is I actually know this very well, lol. 

I had a friend who I flipped properties with who is also a "big wig" in the half-way housing "game", and for a time also got me to jump into those waters. 

Short version, it takes a major "in" like I had, a person well established with plenty of political "juice" to assure all things will actually happen and result in an operation. There is a mountain of red-tape and there is no guarantees of anything without that "heavy hitter" backing you, it's politically involved and with that, well it's all about who you know and how to grease the wheels. Without that I would say a person needs a mountain of capital to fund great attorneys and cover the considerable time to go through everything, not to mention create all resources from 0 and carry monster costs before receiving dime 1.

It's not as simple as just fill out some paperwork, get a license and start plopping people in a property, not for a half-way house. For example, what kind of offenders will be residing there? Will there be sex offenders? What level? Is the property in a correct location for such persons? Is there FT monitoring staff in place? How do you monitor residents for check-ins? How will you mitigate resident disputes? How will you feed them? 

It is a business, a very intensive business. I would say it's most similar with owning and running a jail, it's just a jail that happens to let prisoners leave for a few hours a day, it's much more like that than not. 

The person I know, when he started he had a mountain of capital and political pull behind him day 1. Than when it came to considering it myself, I would have had him, the #1 provider of such in the state with a long track record of success, partnered for a few years as I got it going, and than a slow transition of him and his name stepping out of it 100%. That's what it takes.