The Massachusetts Alliance for Sober Housing MASH

The support provided by sober home communities is combined with local clinical recovery support organizations to serve those in recovery from addiction. Lang urged the council to consider revising zoning regulations to give the city more control over where to allow rooming houses and sober houses. He called for balancing the need to address widespread addiction with the need to protect single-family neighborhoods. While addicted people are shielded from discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act, Lang said those protections should not be allowed to overrule local controls.

Sober House Certification in Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Alliance for Sober Housing (MASH) is involved in several key initiatives aimed at enhancing the quality and safety of sober living environments across the state. Notably, MASH administers the Fire Sprinkler System Program (FSSP), which provides grants of up to $80,000 per home for the installation of fire sprinkler systems in MASH-certified sober homes. This program is essential for helping homes comply with state and local fire safety codes, thereby ensuring a safe living environment for residents. Sober House Directory helps you find sober houses, structured group homes, and sober living. Our team of sober house owners, operators, consultants, clinicians, and providers understand sober living is challenging; our mission is to connect residents to sober houses so everyone can find their recovery community.

Recovery Resources for Massachusetts Sober House Residents

Massachusetts Alliance for Sober Housing (MASH) serves as the primary agency for accountability of all certified homes in Massachusetts. Our organization also provides supervision and training for sober homes, and maintains a database of more than 180 MASH-certified sober homes.MASH’s recovery values emphasize health, home, purpose, and community. Successful sober homes establish and reinforce healthy lifestyles, provide a safe and stable place to live, conduct meaningful activities, and build relationships and social mash certified sober homes networks for support. Through our network of certified sober housing and empirically based recovery principles, MASH’s goal is to help create and foster these safe living environments for those with substance use disorders.

• The smallest, run by Dawn and Scott Boucher at 12 Sears St., houses four women.
• Sober house certification in Massachusetts is managed by the Massachusetts Alliance for Sober Housing (MASH), the state affiliate of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences (NARR).
• A brief compiled by the National Council for Behavioral Health in 2017 argues that the sober house approach works.

» Certified Sober Homes

For recovery resources in Massachusetts, please visit the Massachusetts Sober House Recovery Resources page for more information. Transition (e.g. entry, phase movement and exit) rituals promote residents’ sense of belonging and confer progressive status and increasing opportunities within the recovery living environment and community. Job descriptions include staff responsibilities, eligibility, and knowledge, skills and abilities needed to deliver services. Ideally, eligibility to deliver services includes lived experience recovering from substance use disorders and the ability to reflect recovery principles. Desrochers’ older son, Maxwell Bethoney, died of an overdose at age 33 this past March at his fiancee’s home in Buzzards Bay. He’d struggled with substance abuse for years.

How MASH Certification Ensures Safe, Supportive Sober Housing in Massachusetts

MASH conducts annual inspections, applying a list of 30 standards for sober house administration, physical environment and recovery support. While staff members are acknowledged as authorities in the house and expected to have credentials suiting their work, the standards steer away from top-down management. The standards emphasize residents’ role in setting and enforcing at least some — but not all — of the house rules.

• Those three join a line of women who have been asked to leave for that reason since the house opened in February 2022.
• Our mission is to provide clean, comfortable accommodations in a positive environment for those looking to live a sober lifestyle.
• At minimum, data collection will protect individual’s identity, be used for continuous quality improvement, be part of day-to-day operations, and regularly reviewed by staff and residents (where appropriate).
• Please visit the Massachusetts Sober House Certification page for more information about sober house certification in this state.

• The VSL and Vanderburgh House ™ brands are used with permission by VSL Chartered Operators.
• Vanderburgh House, a supporter of Sober House Directory, builds sober home communities where residents are supported in their recovery journeys.
• MASH is dedicated to promoting the health, safety, and well-being of residents through rigorous certification standards that align with the National Alliance for Recovery Residences.
• The Ash Street house raises particular concern for residents because of its size.
• The 28-year-old had a place to live, and a job, and was on her day off, sitting on wooden steps waiting for her driving instructor.

Resident and staff orientations include how to greet and interact with neighbors and/or concerned parties. Residents are linked to mutual aid, recovery activities and recovery advocacy opportunities. Community gatherings, recreational events and/or other social activities occur periodically. Verification that Naloxone is accessible at each location, and appropriate individuals are knowledgeable and trained in its use. Documentation that residents are oriented to emergency procedures. Documentation that emergency contact information is collected from residents.