Paid Work Agreements: Social Enterprise within Recovery Housing

Many recovery homes see the value in assisting residents with employment as a recovery goal. Connecting residents to employment and job training improves recovery-related outcomes. Therefore, a recovery housing program can start employment programs that teach job skills, but they must be sure that they are keeping some separation between the employment program and the housing program.

Imagine that a recovery home starts a social enterprise where residents living in the recovery home can learn job skills, such as catering. A resident moves into the home and starts working at the social enterprise catering company.

After a couple of weeks, the resident realizes how much they dislike working in food service, so they quit the job training program and get a job at a retail store as a cashier. They still have a job, are still paying their rent and are otherwise engaged in all of the recovery oriented programming in the house.

This resident should not automatically lose their housing because food service and catering turned out not to be their career path. Even if they are not participating in the social enterprise that is associated with the recovery home, they are still meeting their recovery goals and should be able to continue to live there.

Similarly, if something happens in an employment situation where a resident loses their job, they should not automatically lose their housing as well.