At any given time there are about 2,000 Oxford House residents who have served in the military. During the course of a year more than 4,000 veterans will live in an Oxford House. Some houses are all veterans but primarily veterans are integrated into the normal Oxford House population. Instead of being left to their own fates, Mr. Molloy and other residents decided to take over the house themselves, paying the expenses and utilities, cooking the meals and keeping watch over one another’s path to recovery. Paul Molloy was a young lawyer on Capitol Hill who had a key role in drafting legislation that created Amtrak and other federal programs.
Electing members to staggered three-year terms of office assures continuity of the 12-member World Council. This assures integrity and correct application of the Oxford House system of operations as documented in the Oxford House Manual© and Oxford House Chapter Manual©. The OHI field staff travel to Oxford Houses, Chapters, and Associations to provide technical assistance and training, assist with expansion, and network in the community. Oxford House, Inc. is a separate nonprofit organization that provides support and training to the network of houses to help expand the Oxford House Model. More than 80 percent of Oxford House residents remain clean and sober for the long term even though many of them come from backgrounds that have included lengthy alcohol and drug use, periods of homelessness, and incarceration.
The dissatisfaction was in part the realization that we were shirking responsibility for our own lives and in part a resentment of authority. The third factor affecting us both in the rehabilitation facilities and the halfway houses was the realization that the duration of our stay must be limited because space must be made for others in need of help. Oxford House grew out of the need for many of us to begin a new life without fear oxford house traditions of backsliding because of loneliness or renewed dependency on former drinking companions. Throughout its tradition, Oxford House has combined the concepts of self-support and responsibility with a fellowship having the common purpose of continued and comfortable sobriety.
One of the greatest threats to the sobriety of a recovering alcoholic or drug addict is loneliness. At a time when we acquired a serious desire to stop drinking or using drugs, many of us had lost our families and friends because of our alcoholism and/or drug addiction. Too often, newly recovering alcoholics and drug addicts are faced with the necessity of living alone and of relying solely on contacts with Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous to stay sober. Some are able to keep from drinking in spite of the loneliness with which they were faced.
If a house votes to accept you, you can tell them whether or not you accept the invitation to move in. Call the contact person for each house you’re interested in to set up an interview. Each Oxford House should be autonomous except in matters affecting other houses or Oxford House, Inc., as a whole. “An AA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest Problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.” Find documents, templates, and everything residents need while living at an Oxford House.
Oxford House has as its primary goal the provision of housing and rehabilitative support for the alcoholic or drug addict who wants to stop drinking or using and stay stopped. It is no more difficult than for an ordinary family to find a house to rent. Each Oxford House is an ordinary single-family house with two bathrooms and four or more bedrooms. Ideally several of the bedrooms are large enough for two twin beds so that newcomers, in particular, are able to have a roommate. This discourages isolation and helps the newcomer to learn or relearn socialization to get the full benefit of recovering individuals helping each other to become comfortable enough in sobriety to avoid relapse.
In 1975, a tight budget in Montgomery County, Maryland led to a decision to close one of the four county-run halfway houses. The thirteen men living in the halfway house rented the building and decided to run it themselves. They immediately decided to change the rule that limited a stay to six months because they had witnessed that when a person was required to leave because the time was up they almost always relapsed within thirty days of leaving.
This brought members and alumni from all over the country together to enjoy fellowship and learn more about Oxford House. “We found that participants assigned to a communal living Oxford House compared to usual care condition had significantly less substance use and criminal involvement and, significantly better employment outcomes.” Oxford House has enabled peer-run, self-sustaining, and substance-free housing since 1975. Find a house, fill out the application, and call a house to schedule an interview. If you are not selected, you should try another house that has an opening. It is not unusual that an individual who gets rejected at one house applies at another house with an opening and gets accepted.
Oxford House must always have as its Primary goal the provision of housing and rehabilitative support for the alcoholic who wants to stop drinking and stay stopped and the drug addict who wants to stop using drugs and stay stopped. By the time many of us had stopped drinking, we had lost jobs; we had lost families, and some of us either had no place to live or no place to live which was not an invitation to start drinking again. Oxford House was founded not only to put a roof over our head, but also to create a home where the disease of alcoholism was understood and the need for the alcoholic to stay away from the first drink was emphasized. The bond that holds the group together is the desire to stop drinking and stay stopped. Modest rooms and living facilities can become luxurious suites when viewed from an environment of alcoholics working together for comfortable sobriety.
Oxford House, Inc. is a separate nonprofit organization that provides technical assistance and training to the network of houses to help expand the Oxford House Model. The Model encourages the development of leadership skills and self-efficacy. Slowly but surely, members learn or relearn values and responsible behavior. While Oxford House, Inc. has the sole authority to grant Oxford House charters, the World Council acts as an advisory council to the board. Each member pays EES (Equal Expense Share) which includes the total amount of rent due for the Sober living house month as well as the cost of utilities, telephone, cable TV and any other expenses that the house includes in its common expenditures. Some houses collect EES from its members on a monthly basis while many houses choose to collect EES on a weekly basis.
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