About this Recovery Home
Safe Place Foundation is a men's sober house on 6th Avenue SE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the seat of Linn County. It houses adult men in early recovery from alcoholism or drug addiction who are homeless or close to it, and it runs a two-phase program built around twelve-step immersion and a return to independent living.
A Men's Sober House on 6th Avenue SE
The address sits in downtown Cedar Rapids, a short walk from the courthouse, the library, the bus station and the employers along the 1st Avenue corridor. For a man arriving with no car and no savings, a downtown address is the single most useful feature of a recovery home. Everything the first ninety days require is inside a walkable radius, and the men living here are all working the same program at the same time.
Who This Cedar Rapids Recovery Home Admits
Admission starts with a face-to-face or telephone interview covering substance use history, mental health, legal and medical background, current living situation and overall wellbeing. To be admitted, a man must:
- Be an adult male over eighteen.
- Be in early recovery from alcoholism or drug addiction.
- Be homeless or near homeless.
- Agree to the rules and expectations of the house.
Physical limitations that would prevent full participation, severe psychiatric disorders and a sex offender registry requirement are exclusionary. Where a man needs a higher level of care, the foundation refers him elsewhere instead of admitting him.
Phase One and Twelve-Step Immersion in This Sober Living Home
The first phase is an Alcoholics Anonymous twelve-step immersion curriculum. Residents open and close each day with prayer and meditation, complete step assignments daily, and go out into the local recovery community to meet people at meetings. Alongside the step work, phase one teaches the ordinary skills that a decade of addiction erodes: household chores, grocery shopping, planning and cooking meals, laundry, and keeping a budget. Men in phase two facilitate peer support meetings for the phase one residents, so the newest arrivals are learning the house from men who were where they are a few months earlier.
Phase Two and the Route Out of Recovery Housing
Phase two lasts up to nine months and shifts the work toward independence. Residents look for and take employment, budget their income and save toward their own place. The recovery requirements tighten instead of loosening: a minimum of four outside twelve-step groups a week, a sponsor and a home group, continued step work, and two mandatory house meetings a week run by volunteers. Staff review each man's progress against the goals he set himself in periodic transition plan reviews. The structure is designed to make leaving the house a planned event with money behind it.
Downtown Cedar Rapids Recovery Housing in Linn County
Linn County has roughly a quarter million residents and Cedar Rapids holds most of them, which means the county's court system, its outpatient providers, its shelters and its largest employers all sit within a few miles of this house. Men referred from the Linn County jail, from local detox or from treatment programs elsewhere in eastern Iowa land in a city where the next appointment is reachable on foot or on a single bus. That density is what makes a downtown men's recovery home workable for someone starting with nothing.
ABOUT US
Upon completion of Phase One, clients are eligible to move into Phase Two, which is our longer term transitional living program. Â Clients in Phase Two continue to practice Phase One teachings but are given more freedom to begin job searches, gain employment, and do outside activities on their own including shopping, 12 Step meetings, recreational activities, and family visits. Â Phase Two clients continue to check in regularly with staff and are involved in providing peer support to Phase One clients.
