Chris Fredette got lucky when he landed at the Oxford House after leaving treatment for his addiction, he said.

"I kind of picked a sober house out of a hat," he said on a recent December day, sitting at the wooden table in the living room of the house he shares in Burlington's South End with several other men in recovery from addiction.

"There's not a lot of information out there about these places," he said.

The Oxford House is run like a democracy. Fredette and his housemates meet weekly and vote on big decisions, like whether to accept a new person or to adjust the house rules.

The Oxford House model suits him, he said. Other sober houses are more tightly regimented, offering a form of structure that might suit another person better.

Fredette said he's unsure what might have happened if he ended up at another program.

"I don't know if I'd be sober right now," he said, listening to a housemate describe life in another, stricter Burlington recovery house. "Because that sounds really stressful."

His story highlights the fact there is a patchwork of sober houses that have sprung up as the state grapples with the persistent opioid crisis that has ended or damaged hundreds of lives. These houses have differing approaches and philosophies about recovery.

Yet Vermont offers little-to-no regulation regarding operation of these centers, and guidance for people in need regarding choosing one is lacking.

Without oversight, there's no state assurances that these homes are safe for residents — or recourse if they're not.

And people like Fredette must rely on word-of-mouth to find out about the homes.

More:Opioid addiction: What you should know about sober houses in Vermont

But some local officials and advocates are hoping to change that. They want to create a certification for sober houses.

That certification, they hope, will offer people in recovery more information about sober houses—and offer some protection to the people who turn to these houses to rebuild their lives.

"It’s a way to ensure the quality of the services being provided," said Cindy Seivwright, who runs the state's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program.

"We'll have some mechanism for accountability," she said.

More:Opioid addiction: Vermont sees progress, but still has far to go

A stamp of approval

A local chapter of a national nonprofit organization will be doing the certifying, not the state.

Two organizations—The Vermont Foundation for Recovery, which operates four sober houses and Vermont Association for Mental Health and Recovery— are spearheading the creation of a state chapter of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences.

The state has been funding and supporting their efforts, said Seivwright.

The National Alliance for Recovery Residences began in 2011 to combat fraud and abuse in the sober living industry.

They created standards for sober homes, organized on four levels based on the level of support the residence provides. Those standards, and an accompanying ethics code, form the basis for how the Vermont chapter will evaluate houses.

The plan has been in the works for a few years, said Dave Riegel, executive director of the Vermont Foundation of Recovery.

"With any luck, by mid-summer, we’ll be actively certifying homes," he said. There are still some logistical details to work out over the next six months. For example: how many years is a certification valid?

Sober house owners will be able to choose whether to seek certification.

Riegel is confident that most houses will want the stamp of approval the organization can convey.

People will be more likely to refer others to certified houses, he said. They'll list houses they've approved on their website.

As long as there's enough certified sober houses to meet demand, Riegel said, the others could just fade away.

A Yelp for sober houses

Fredette first learned about sober houses when he sought treatment from Valley Vista.

He knew there were places where people could live while on furlough, or while coming out of prison. Fredette has had legal issues, but they aren't forcing him to be at the Oxford House, he said.

"I didn’t realize you could come into a place like this just if you wanted to get clean," he said.

More:After addiction: With help, Vermont employers give second chance

Creating a website with a list of sober houses and information on how they're run would be one big way the state could help, Fredette said.

He pointed out that the houses provide a safe, sober space for people who have struggled with addiction to start over—and someone may have few other options.

"A lot of people in our position have burned a lot of people close to us in our lives," he said. "They're not willing to help us anymore."

His housemate, Michael Akey, came to the Oxford House after spending about a year at another Burlington sober house. He's hoping to eventually open a sober house in southern Vermont.

It's hard sometimes to even find a phone number to call for more information, he said. So he often gives out his own.

Nowhere to turn

Akey still sees a need for the state to be more involved, he said.

"What bothers me, though, is there's nobody we can grieve to," he said. "There's no oversight."

A sober house owner or director, he said, can demand an arbitrary amount of rent. One resident can relapse, and if the house director or community doesn't deal with the relapse well, that can put the other residents' sobriety at risk as well.

Hypothetically, residents could even be sexually harassed and have no recourse except to move out, he said.

But moving out is often a desperate option that can lead to homelessness.

"They have no place to go," Akey said.

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Riegel sees solving that need as one of the main benefits of creating a certification.

People running sober houses around the country have exploited vulnerable people, he said, and he wants to ensure that doesn't happen in Vermont.

The group is still ironing out exactly how the grievance process will work, Riegel said. Details like who will sit on the panel that hears complaints is one of the logistical issues they need to iron out before beginning to certify houses this summer.

But they will hear people's complaints about the residences, Riegel said.

"If it's a certified home and we receive reports that something is going on that goes against the standards, we would investigate that," he said.

Contact Jess Aloe at 802-660-1874 or jaloe@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @jess_aloe



