About this Sober House
Courage House is a men's sober living house at 24 School Street in Gorham, Maine. Gorham is in Cumberland County, west of Portland, and the house has been at this address long enough to appear in successive editions of the statewide Maine recovery residence directory. What has changed in that time is not the address but the model: the house now sits inside a larger program run by The Courage Network rather than standing alone as an independent residence.
Courage House in the Maine Recovery Residence Directories
The statewide recovery residence directory published in November 2019 carries Courage House at 24 School Street in Gorham, and the July 2020 edition lists it again, serving men and recorded at that time as MARR-certified. Those entries establish the address firmly. For anyone tracing a house through Maine's recovery housing records, the School Street listing is unambiguous, which is not always the case with residences that change names or move between rented properties.
Housing Tied to the Courage Network's Outpatient Program
The operator has since restructured as The Courage Network, and the way it describes its Gorham flagship building today is specific. The building is the old Sigma Nu fraternity property, near the University of Southern Maine's Gorham campus, and it offers men a safe and supportive place to stay temporarily while they are in the Courage Network's Intensive Outpatient Program, which runs from a separate address on Main Street in Gorham. The organization puts the same point on its front page: its houses in Gorham and Westbrook offer temporary lodging for people participating in its IOP.
That is a meaningful difference from a conventional recovery residence. Here the housing exists to support participation in a clinical program, and it is described as temporary by the operator itself. The clinical work happens elsewhere in Gorham, so the house remains a house, but the reason for living in it is tied to attendance at the program.
Who Can Move In
The house serves men. The Courage Network publishes its program requirements, and two of them shape admission directly: an applicant must have active MaineCare, and must commit to full participation in all housing and clinical expectations for the program they are in. Those are gates rather than aspirations. A man who is not eligible for MaineCare, or who wants housing without the outpatient program attached, is not the person this house is set up for. Conversely, for someone who does want structured outpatient treatment and needs somewhere stable to live while they do it, having both arranged by one organization removes a coordination problem that defeats a lot of people at exactly the wrong moment.
Not a Licensed Residential Facility
24 School Street does not appear in the 2026 Maine Department of Health and Human Services overview of licensed residential substance use treatment facilities. That is consistent with how the operator describes the arrangement: an intensive outpatient program is outpatient care, delivered at the Main Street address, and the School Street building is lodging rather than a licensed residential treatment setting.
Sober Living in Gorham, Cumberland County
Gorham is a Cumberland County town in the greater Portland area, best known as the home of the University of Southern Maine's second campus, and it has the character of a college town attached to a working commuter belt. For someone in early recovery, its advantages are proximity to the Portland meeting schedule and labor market without being in the middle of the city. The Courage Network runs several other housing programs across the region, in Westbrook, Biddeford and Sanford as well as Gorham, so a man inquiring about School Street is inquiring about one option within a network rather than a single house. It is worth asking the operator directly which of its Gorham houses has availability and what the current arrangement at each one involves.
About our sober living home for men
What we provide:
-16 beds, priced at $150 / week, in comfortable, fully-furnished bedrooms.
-Two experienced professional staff people: our program director Al Garcia and our house manager Eric Pryor.
-A large, modern, communal kitchen, complete with high quality appliances and free coffee, condiments, and basic food staple items. Nobody here goes hungry!
-We host frequent community events, including a weekly motivational speaker from the surrounding a community, a weekly meditation group, and regularly held free workshops and service opportunities on topics ranging from financial literacy to resume building to training service dogs. We are always looking for people to come in and share their time and skills with the residents.
-A house computer to work on resumes, job searches, class scheduling, etc.
-Coin-operated laundy on premises with free laundry detergent and dryer sheets.
What we expect:
-All residents are expected to remain drug and alcohol free. Random drug checks are performed. Any use of drugs or alcohol will result in immediate disciplinary action and potential termination of residency.
-Residents are expected to obtain work, attend school and/or volunteer at least 20 hours per week within the first two weeks of residency.
-Residents will maintain good relations with their housemates, neighbors and their community as a whole.
-Residents are required to obtain a qualified sponsor or certified Recovery Coach within one week of arrival. Our staff members have strong relationships across the Gorham community and are happy to assist residents in identifying a good peer support person.
-In addition to mandatory weekly house meetings, residents must participate in at least three "pro-social" activities a week. Such activities may include, but are not limited to: AA, NA, or other 12-Step meetings; faith-based opportunities such as Celebrate Recovery; or professionally facilitated group therapy and counseling.
