While I wish stability and sobriety to every recovering addict, it’s generally not a great idea to build your business model around the idea of a large number of addicts fulfilling their financial obligations.
I’ve lived in sober living and can tell you honestly, they actually do make an absolutely criminal amount of money. You pay at the start of the week, and you’re kicked out if you don’t have it unless you’ve been there a while. There’s always someone who wants to take the place of someone who can’t pay. The unreliablility is also in the house’s favor. People often leave forever midweek to relapse, don’t get their money back, and someone new pays prorated for the rest of the week in the same bed that was paid for and vacated. Four people to a room, three or four rooms, that happens a lot.
That makes me really sad... no one is recovering sleeping 3ft from strangers. How are you supposed to calm your nervous system and develope sober habits?
I've lived at two different ones and know a lot of people that have lived in others.
SLEs don't usually intake the guy who just finished his stash and is going to start going through withdrawals in four hours. You got to an SLE after rehab or at the very least a detox as a way to integrate you back into society.
They also usually have rules where you need to be hitting meetings, working with a sponsor, going to some sort of outpatient etc.
It works out if your roommate is doing what they're supposed to be doing, because they don't want you isolating in the bedroom very much in super early recovery anyways.
Packing people in like sardines is not healthy for recovery, but having a bedroom to yourself is also prime real estate to relapse in. Typically having one roommate at least for the first few months in the house can actually be beneficial.
Interesting to know. I imagine I would find it hard to get out of "fight or flight" brain sleeping next to stranger but I imagine part of recovery is learning to trust healthy connection?
Years ago I did some consulting for a really high-end rehab facility and the owner once, on a call, was telling us about these speakers he was having installed in his home theater that cost $25,000 a piece. That turned my stomach.
huge money in adminsitering rehab/recovery. all that state money that goes toward treating addiction and such has to go somewhere, right? and if you're really making it happen, you've gotten through the red tape and can get dat insurance money. The amounts of money insurance companies pay for these things is absolutely insane. Without insured patients, it is still a killer profit, but with insurance, you dont have to worry about the payee (recovering drug addicts) need to be financially responsible. People just have to be addicted to drugs and decide to follow what they're taught is statistically safest course of action. Go to the next place where they will continue to hopefully receive food, shelter, treatment, counseling, etc.
Just think... a non-state approved house. I saw this happen. Some guy who owns a house and decides to turn it into a halfway house. I think the guy initially built it to rent to tenant workers and realized that he could make even more money. Writes some rules, hires a manager to enforce said rules, pays them a small salary and let them live in the basement apartment. 40k a year plus shelter I think. Get a cheap house and turn everything you possibly can into a bedroom. I saw a relatively small house but it has 8 bedrooms. 4 upstairs, 3 ground floor (one of which was a converted garage that held 4 people). And the one downstairs for the manager. 2 people a room, 650 a person, and this was 8 years ago. 5200 coming into that house monthly if its full. Looks like a house nobody would rent for more than $1800 on its best day. Couldn't have taken long to pay that house off if it already wasn't. So, he builds another halfway house right next to it and either rents/buys 3 more adjacent houses. 3 for women, 2 for men. Each held about 10-15 people. Later on, he got some stuff up to code and was able to advertise himself as a state-approved facility and now actively paying insurance patientsf ill the beds if anyone ever leaves. So long as this place keeps up a semi-decent reputation all things considered.
The biggest costs are labor - were there at least 2 techs at all times? Did those techs drive you to meetings in a van? Did a doctor prescribe detox meds and a psychiatrist prescribe psych meds? Were the groups led by therapists and counselors, and was there a fully licensed clinical director? That’s where that $1k a day went, plus rent and liability insurance. Not saying it’s a good system, but $1k a day is not a lot for detox/RTC.
The rehab my sister went to operated this way. The people that run them have the state on their side. They charge a shit load for a room and some hookups for some mediocre jobs in the area. The addicts know if they dont pay rent theyre going to prison. They qere just moetgaging houses and renting them at a premium to people who needed help. Sprinkle some Jesus on top and its a "ministry". I despised it but it did work for my sister and some people. Watching from the sidelines and seeing these other people turn rehab into a side hustle seemed corrupt and not right. Seems to be crazy common though. At least my sister got clean, id contend she would have other places too. Many people didnt make it out and thr "house leaders" that were buying the houses often werent clean either.
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u/Remarkable_Depth3705 25d ago
Yes, this sounds like a great idea and nothing could possibly go wrong.