Group Housing

Nelle Moffett’s succinct insight was “… I realized that the solution to homelessness is housing.” Unfortunately, Over the 2010-2016 time period, Oregon created only 63 new housing units for every 100 households that formed during the time period, increasing competition for housing.¹ So the problem of the lack of affordable housing is getting worse, not better. What are the options? We could wait for the housing market to self-correct and increase the stock of affordable housing. We could wait for a flood of federal dollars to (1) provide a drastic increase in the number of housing vouchers and (2) finance more affordable housing stock. I suspect those are long term solutions. In the meantime we could consider group housing and micro shelters as affordable options that are available now.

Oxford House

“Oxford House is a concept in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. In its simplest form, an Oxford House describes a democratically run, self-supporting and drug free home. Parallel to this concept lies the organizational structure of Oxford House, Inc. This publicly supported, non-profit 501(c)3 corporation is the umbrella organization which provides the network connecting all Oxford Houses and allocates resources to duplicate the Oxford House concept where needs arise.”

“The number of residents in a House may range from six to fifteen; there are houses for men, houses for women, and houses which accept women with children… they all abide by the basic criteria.”

“The first Oxford House was established in 1975 in Silver Spring, Maryland.” They are now nationwide. From their website:

• Over 2,400 self-sustaining sober houses utilizing the Oxford House model.
• More than 20,000 individuals in recovery living in houses at any one time during a year; with more than 35,000 living in an Oxford House during course of the year.

Visit their website here.

Friends’ House

The Friends’ House in Astoria is loosely modeled after Oxford House.

See the full story here.