Recovery residences provide safe and supportive housing to help individuals initiate and sustain recovery from substance abuse. They are a potentially important yet understudied component of the substance abuse continuum of care. Unlike other substance abuse treatment and service delivery options, recovery residences are largely privately owned and funded by the residents themselves, and we know little about how these residences open and the factors that influence their ability to stay open. Using qualitative data from interviews with recovery home operators (N = 21) in Philadelphia, this article explores what recovery home operators want to accomplish with their homes, how they try to do this, the obstacles they encounter in trying to run their homes, and why they keep at it. Themes highlight the potential of recovery residences as well as the challenges faced by those who operate them.
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