If you are a mother, father, spouse, or adult child trying to picture what happens after PHP or IOP ends, you have arrived at one of the most important pieces of the recovery plan. Sober living homes, also called recovery residences or in some contexts Oxford Houses, are peer-based, substance-free housing environments designed to support people in early recovery who need structured, accountable housing while they rebuild independence. For many clients completing PHP or IOP, sober living is not just a nice option; it is the clinical bridge that makes the difference between sustained recovery and a return to use. The research on recovery housing is consistent. Stable, substance-free housing is one of the strongest predictors of long-term recovery (NIDA, 2024).
Sober living and recovery housing are practical questions for many clients and families in the Roanoke Valley. Sober living residences across the region are operated by separate community organizations; the list below is provided as a community service and to support the aftercare planning of our clients. Our treatment approach situates sober living within the broader recovery plan.
What Sober Living Is
A sober living home is a shared residential environment in which everyone living there is committed to sobriety as a condition of staying. Unlike inpatient or residential treatment facilities, sober living homes are not treatment providers. They do not provide clinical services. What they provide is an environment: peer accountability, a substance-free household, house rules that support recovery (including curfews, meeting attendance requirements, chore responsibilities, and drug testing), and a community of people working toward the same thing.
Sober living is most valuable when home itself is part of the problem. We see this often. A household where substances are still present. A living situation with a using partner. An environment with no structure or accountability. Housing that was already unstable before recovery entered the picture. For these clients, the home environment is part of the clinical problem, and changing it through sober living is part of the clinical solution.
Sober Living and Roanoke Refuge Aftercare Planning
If sober living is part of your aftercare plan, your case manager will help with identifying appropriate housing options, making contact with house managers, and coordinating the transition from clinical programming into the sober living environment. We treat housing stability as a clinical priority because it is one of the strongest predictors of long-term recovery in the research. We have seen the difference firsthand. Two people with similar histories and the same level of clinical engagement can end up on very different paths a year out because one returned to a stable substance-free household and the other did not. The recommendation is built around the specific environmental picture you are returning to after the formal program ends.
Dual Diagnosis and Sober Living
If you are on psychiatric medication and worried sober living will not let you bring it, you are not alone. Most families ask this within the first ten minutes of the aftercare conversation. Most certified recovery residences welcome residents on psychiatric medications including non-addictive antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and MAT medications such as buprenorphine and naltrexone. The aftercare conversation includes specific verification that the house is appropriate for your full clinical picture, including your MAT coordination and any dual diagnosis follow-up.
Local, regional, and accessible.
Roanoke Refuge serves adults across the Roanoke Valley — Roanoke City, Salem, Vinton, and the surrounding counties of Roanoke, Botetourt, and Bedford — from a facility at 1630 Braeburn Drive in Salem, just off I-81. Most clients are within a 30-minute drive of the program.
The path forward is a conversation, not a commitment. A short call with the Roanoke Refuge admissions team covers fit, level of care, and insurance — at no cost, with full confidentiality, before any clinical decisions are made. Insurance verification runs during the same call. Call (540) 900-0353 when you are ready.