Propagation, or spreading the word, of the Oxford House concept is given the highest priority by the members of Oxford House. For example, the landlord and phone company may require a security deposit and, while furnishings are generally donated, members will often have to rent a truck in order to pick them up. There may also be a need to buy more “staples” such as flour, sugar, coffee, etc. when a House starts up.

The Oxford House Model provides community based, supportive, and sober living environment.

• Throughout its tradition, Oxford House has combined the concepts of self-support and responsibility with a fellowship having the common purpose of continued and comfortable sobriety.
• During our drinking and drug use years, and even before, many of us found it difficult to accept authority.
• Oxford House set out for national expansion by hiring the first outreach workers to start opening houses in other states.
• However, the men living in that halfway house, including Oxford House’s founder Paul Molloy, were not ready to leave.

The bond that holds the group together is the desire to stop drinking and stay stopped. Modest rooms and living facilities can become luxurious suites when viewed from an environment of alcoholics working together for comfortable sobriety. There is no reason to believe that society as a whole had the responsibility to provide long-term housing within a protected environment for the alcoholic and drug addict.

Business meetings

• Loneliness and self-pity soon lead such individuals back to alcoholic drinking or drug use.
• Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous provided a framework for us to change physically, mentally, and spiritually.
• When we stopped drinking, we began to realize that in order to stay stopped, our lives would need to change.
• Oxford House must always have as its Primary goal the provision of housing and rehabilitative support for the alcoholic who wants to stop drinking and stay stopped and the drug addict who wants to stop using drugs and stay stopped.
• Too often, newly recovering alcoholics and drug addicts are faced with the necessity of living alone and of relying solely on contacts with Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous to stay sober.

All aspects of Oxford House operations, from the acquisition of the house to the acceptance or dismissal of members, is carried out under democratic procedures. Each member has one vote and majority rule applies except that 80% of the members must agree in accepting new persons for membership. It was the first step in a nationwide movement, now almost 50 years old, that has been credited with helping thousands of people overcome addiction and lead productive lives.

Stay informed

Second, every resident would contribute equally to the expenses and household duties. While Oxford House, Inc. has the sole authority to grant Oxford House charters, the World Council acts as an advisory council to the board. For more than twenty-five years, a DePaul University-based research team has been involved in studying Oxford Houses in order to better understand the role they play in substance abuse recovery. The national scope of Oxford House and its long history makes it the only recovery house system that has been the subject of so much independent research. One can only be dismissed from an Oxford House because of drinking, using drugs, non-payment of rent, or disruptive behavior.

Oxford House Manual: Chapter Manual: Sharing the Experience, Strength, and Hope of Oxford Houses for the Common Good

In fact, Oxford House creates an environment whereby each member can more fully realize the benefits available from active AA or NA membership. A house full of sober, recovering alcoholics and drug addicts invites informal AA or NA “meetings after the meeting” and each day finds many informal AA or NA meetings before individual members each go off to their regular AA or NA meeting. During our drinking and drug use years, and even before, many of us found it difficult to accept authority. Many individuals in society are able to abide by the strict letter of any rule, regulation , or law. Alcoholics and drug addicts seem to have a tendency to test and retest the validity of any real, potential, or imagined restriction on their behavior.

Failure to adhere to any of these three requirements would bring the entire Oxford House concept into question. Therefore, it is important that each Oxford House meet these minimum responsibilities in order for its charter to be continued. All Oxford Houses have been careful to avoid undo dependence on government or other outside funds. Every Oxford House member attributes his sobriety to Alcoholics Anonymous and/or Narcotics Anonymous. Each Oxford House member, as an individual, considers himself a member of AA and/or NA. Oxford House should rely on democratically-chosen leaders, but the leaders must always be but trusted servants.

During the early 1990s dozens of communities sought to close Oxford Houses located in good neighborhoods because local zoning ordinances restricted the number of unrelated Halfway house individuals that could live together in a single-family home. Individuals living in each of the Oxford Houses have also been responsible for starting many new groups of Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous having meetings near an Oxford House. This not only helps those individuals to become more involved in AA or NA, and thereby reap greater individual benefits, but also helps to build strong bonds between local AA and NA groups and Oxford House. Starting new Houses through the mutual assistance of existing Oxford Houses is a tradition because each House was started with the help of existing Houses and tends to pass on to others that which they received. Once more applications are received than there are beds available, the members of any Oxford House will begin to look around for another suitable house. When they find such a house they will bring it up with the other existing Houses and if there is a consensus they will attempt to find the start up money and members to fill the new house.

For those of us who had been in institutions or half-way houses, resentments against authority were common. Some of us had lived for a time in alcoholic and drug rehabilitation facilities. Those facilities provided us with shelter, food, and therapy for understanding alcoholism. Initially, the structure and supervision of such facilities were acceptable because physically and mentally, we were exhausted. Later, some of us were to move into half-way houses which provided shelter, food, and supervision. As our recovery progressed, the supervision and dependency on a half-way house created dissatisfaction.

• In both cases, financial assistance is in the form of a loan having a pay back schedule, not to exceed one year, defined up front.
• The charter of each Oxford House requires that an Oxford House meet certain minimum requirements of Oxford House, Inc.
• For a couple of months in 1975, he found himself living on the streets and begging strangers for money before he entered a rehabilitation program.

One of the greatest threats to the sobriety of a recovering alcoholic or oxford house drug addict is loneliness. At a time when we acquired a serious desire to stop drinking or using drugs, many of us had lost our families and friends because of our alcoholism and/or drug addiction. Too often, newly recovering alcoholics and drug addicts are faced with the necessity of living alone and of relying solely on contacts with Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous to stay sober. Some are able to keep from drinking in spite of the loneliness with which they were faced. The alcoholic or drug addict alone begins to compare himself to those members of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous who still have family and friends. Loneliness and self-pity soon lead such individuals back to alcoholic drinking or drug use.

However, the members of Oxford House have found only by being active in AA and/or NA have they found comfortable, long-term sobriety — for themselves and the Oxford House in which they live. A major part of the Oxford House philosophy is that dependency is best overcome through an acceptance of responsibility. In Oxford House, each member equally shares the responsibility for the running of the House and upholding the Oxford House tradition.