About this Sober House
Myrtle I is a sober living house for men in Portland, Maine, run by Myrtle Street Sober Living. It sits in Cumberland County, in a city that carries more of Maine's recovery infrastructure than anywhere else in the state. The house is one of two the operator runs, and the pairing matters when you are choosing: these are not identical properties with different numbers on the door, and the fit between a resident and the level of structure he needs is most of what decides whether a placement lasts.
What Is Expected of Residents at Myrtle I
The program is twelve-step based and the requirements are stated plainly. Residents find a sponsor and work the steps, attend two mandatory outside meetings and two mandatory in-house meetings each week, and either find employment or enroll in school. The operator describes the Myrtle I program as the more flexible of its two, requiring residents to actively seek work and to participate in the resident programs the house runs. Flexible here does not mean unstructured. It means the house sets a floor and expects residents to build on it, rather than scheduling every hour on their behalf.
The in-house meeting requirement is the part worth noticing. Two outside meetings connect a resident to the wider Portland fellowship; two meetings inside the house connect him to the men he actually lives with. Houses that run both tend to be harder to hide in, which is generally the point.
Support Offered in the House
Alongside the requirements, the house provides a set of supports:
- Life-skills coaching, working through challenges, solutions, achievements and goals
- An accountability group that meets once a week on Sundays
- Group events and outings
- A gym membership, included with a resident's stay
Taken together these fill the parts of the week that are usually the most dangerous. Sunday afternoons and unplanned free time undo more early recoveries than any dramatic event does, and a house that puts an accountability group on Sunday and organizes things to do at the weekend has understood that.
Men's Sober Living in Portland, Maine
Portland offers something no other Maine city can match for a man in early recovery: meetings at almost any hour, a large and visible recovery community, outpatient and counseling providers within the same city, and enough employers to make the requirement to find work realistic rather than punitive. The peninsula neighborhoods are walkable and served by the city bus network, so a resident without a license is not stranded. Cumberland County's difficulty is not resources but competition for beds, since much of southern Maine looks to Portland for housing after treatment.
Finding a Place at Myrtle I
The organization is small and founder-led, which means inquiries are answered by people who run the houses rather than by an admissions department. Ask which of the two houses suits your current stage, what the intake conversation involves, and how the house handles a resident whose job runs against the meeting schedule. Ask about openings when you call, because in Portland availability changes quickly. And if you are coming out of treatment, ask your counselor to make the introduction; operators of this size take referrals from clinicians seriously.
It is also worth being honest with yourself about the requirements before you accept a bed. Four meetings a week between the outside and in-house schedules, a sponsor, the steps, and work or school on top is a full week by design, and a resident who agrees to it reluctantly tends to come unstuck in the second month rather than the first. Residents who arrive wanting that structure, on the other hand, generally find that the demands are what makes the house work, because a full week leaves very little room for the drift that precedes most relapses.
Sober living homes are group residences for people who are recovering from addiction. In most instances, people who live in sober homes have to follow certain house rules and contribute to the home by doing chores. Most importantly, residents must stay sober throughout their stay in the home.
Mission
At Myrtle Street it is our mission to offer a supportive, safe, structured environment for men to learn that value of accountability, connectedness and encouraging community through the 12 steps.
It is our belief that each person needs support to stimulate positive personal growth. At Myrtle Street it is our goal that each individual is treated with dignity and respect by all.
