About this Sober House
Freedom House Maine is a men's sober house at 11 Exchange Street in Portland, Maine, in Cumberland County. It is one of the men's houses run by Freedom House, a peer-run organization whose recovery residences are built on twelve-step recovery, and it is open to men who want a safe place to begin recovery regardless of income, mental health diagnosis or criminal history.
Who Lives at Freedom House Maine
The house serves men in recovery from addiction. The admissions posture is the organization's own: men are accepted regardless of income, regardless of a mental health diagnosis and regardless of a criminal record. In practice that opens the door to people who have been screened out of other housing after a background check, or who are coming out of a period with no earnings at all, and it is the single clearest thing to know about the house before inquiring.
Men arriving at Exchange Street are generally at the stage where the immediate crisis has passed and the task is to hold on to abstinence while rebuilding an ordinary life. A sober house is not a hospital and not a treatment program; it is a shared home with rules, and the value of it lies in living among other people doing the same work at the same time.
A Twelve-Step House on Exchange Street
Freedom House Maine runs a twelve-step-based program. Residents attend twelve-step meetings, join a home group and work the steps with a sponsor. Those are not suggestions to be taken up when convenient; they are the framework the house is organized around, and the house meeting and the fellowship outside it are treated as part of the same routine.
The abstinence standard is stated without qualification: drug and alcohol use is not tolerated. Use is grounds for dismissal from the house, and a man who leaves that way may reapply after thirty days. Setting out the consequence in advance, rather than handling it case by case, is what makes the environment predictable for everyone else living there.
Peer-Run Housing in Practice
The organization behind the house describes itself as peer-run, offering peer-supported housing, outreach and other peer-run services. For a resident that means the people setting expectations have generally been through the same thing, and it means the house sits inside a wider set of programs rather than standing alone: Freedom House also provides peer-supported housing-first accommodation and transitional housing for young people, so a man who does not fit the sober living program is not simply turned back out with nothing.
An address on Exchange Street has been associated with the organization's men's housing for some years. The statewide recovery residence directory published in July 2020 recorded a Freedom House men's residence at 11 Exchange Street in Portland, which places the house in the city's recovery housing landscape well before this listing.
Sober Living in Portland, Maine
Portland is Maine's largest city and the seat of Cumberland County, and it carries the state's heaviest concentration of recovery meetings, outpatient providers, peer support centers and entry-level employment. For a man leaving treatment or leaving custody, that density is the practical argument for choosing a house in the city rather than a quieter town: meetings run at many hours of the day, and a job or a clinic appointment can usually be reached on foot or by bus.
It also means competition for beds. Recovery housing in greater Portland fills quickly, and houses that accept people with criminal records or no income at intake are a smaller subset again. Anyone weighing Freedom House Maine against other Cumberland County options should expect to be asked about willingness to engage with twelve-step recovery, since that is the organizing principle of the program rather than an optional extra.
About Our Men's Sober Living Program
We are a 12-step-based sober living program.
All residents are required to attend 12-step meetings, join a home group and work the steps with a sponsor.
There is also a 30-day probationary period where residents must be in the house at curfew (no overnights).
House chores are regularly assigned.
If residents miss curfew, violate house rules, or are otherwise disruptive they are placed on “contract†with the hopes that they will be able to maintain residence in the house and continue to grow in their recovery.
Drug and alcohol use is not tolerated. Any use is grounds for dismissal. Residents asked to leave due to a relapse can reapply after 30 days.
There are no refunds given on rent paid.
Residents also must be active in the community and perform service work, work, or go to school at least 20 hours per week and attend a mandatory house meeting once a week.
Residents may stay as long as they wish, and staff are available for support in transitioning to independence.
Residents in need of medical services, psychiatric care, or social services receive referrals and resources for those services upon entry. Help in obtaining employment and health insurance is also available.
