One house open. Room to grow.

The model

How a Sisu house is run

Every Sisu house is peer-governed and self-supported. The people who live in the house run the house. An operator stands behind it from off site.

• Governed by its members

  • Officers are elected from among the members
  • A house meeting every week, with minutes
  • The household votes on who moves in
  • No paid live-in staff and nobody on shift

• Supported by itself, and backed from off site

  • Members share household expenses equally by room type
  • Total abstinence from alcohol and non-prescribed drugs, with random testing
  • An operator responder on call 24 hours a day
  • Weekly contact with the officers and a monthly on-site visit

Each member signs a membership agreement setting out what the household expects of them and what they can expect in return.

For referral partners

Placing someone with us

Sisu Recovery Residences works with treatment providers, recovery navigators, probation and parole officers, and hospital discharge planners across Beaver County and the surrounding area. A Sisu house provides housing, structure, and peer accountability. It does not provide medical care, therapy, counselling, or detoxification, and it is not a licensed clinical setting.

• Who is eligible. Men 18 and over with a history of substance use disorder, committed to abstinence, able to live independently, and able to pay the monthly share from any income source.
• What rules someone out. Active use at the time of placement; sex offender registration in any jurisdiction; a conviction for drug manufacture or sale, subject to a remote-and-rehabilitated review; care needs the house cannot meet; current criminal involvement. Criminal history otherwise is assessed individually, and denials are given in writing with reasons.
• Medication-assisted treatment. Not a barrier. Methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone are accepted on the same terms as any other prescription.
• Turnaround. Inquiries are returned within one business day. A screening call, then an application, with a decision on the application within three business days. Then a background check, an interview, and a house vote. Where a discharge date is fixed, the steps can be compressed; the background check and the house’s decision are not skipped.
• What we need from you. Your name and organisation, the person’s name and a way to reach them, their discharge or release date if there is one, and whether they are on MAT or under supervision. A release of information, if the person wants us to talk with you after placement.
• Continuing care. A person leaving your care arranges any continuing treatment with their own providers. The house requires ongoing outside recovery engagement and reviews it monthly.

We will tell you plainly whether we think the house is the right environment for someone. If it is not, we would rather say so before placement than after.

Referral inquiries

(724) 251-8453

New locations

Where a house comes from

We open a house only when it can be run well. That takes a well-kept single-family home of the right size in a residential neighbourhood, a municipality whose ordinance recognises a Group Residence, and enough people in the area already working on recovery to fill it with members who want to be there.

If you own a property you think would suit, or you work in recovery services in a community you believe needs a house, we would like to hear from you.

Operator

(724) 251-8453