About this Sober House
Myrtle Street 51 is a certified sober living home on Myrtle Street in Portland, Maine, in Cumberland County. The Maine Association of Recovery Residences certifies it, and it is operated by Myrtle Street Sober Living, a small founder-led organization that keeps all of its recovery housing inside the city.
A Sober House on the Portland Peninsula
Myrtle Street is a short residential and civic block on the Portland peninsula, running between Congress Street and Cumberland Avenue beside City Hall. Almost everything a resident needs in the first months is walkable from there: meetings across the peninsula at nearly every hour of the day, outpatient and counseling providers, the public library, peer support in Bayside, and the Metro bus hub on Elm Street for anything further out. For a man who has lost a license, a peninsula address is the difference between a full week and a stranded one.
MARR Certification for This Recovery Residence
Certification through MARR, the state affiliate of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences, is granted to a specific address and not to a company as a whole. A certified residence commits in writing to a code of ethics, to disclosing its fees and house rules before anyone moves in, to a written policy covering relapse and discharge, and to a complaint process that someone outside the house reviews. Maine does not license recovery residences the way it licenses clinical facilities, so for a resident or a family member weighing this house against an uncertified rooming house, that record is the one thing available to check in advance.
The Twelve-Step Framework in This Sober Living Program
Myrtle Street Sober Living runs its houses on a twelve-step foundation, and the expectations it publishes are consistent from one address to the next. Residents find a sponsor and work the steps, attend mandatory outside meetings and in-house meetings each week, and either hold a job or enroll in school. Alongside the requirements sit life-skills coaching sessions covering challenges, solutions, achievements and goals, a weekly accountability group that meets on Sundays, and group events and outings. The outings are easy to dismiss and should not be, because learning that a weekend can be enjoyable sober is something a residence can teach and a treatment program usually cannot.
Bayside and Downtown Portland Recovery Housing
Portland holds the deepest meeting schedule in Maine, the largest number of certified residences, the widest range of outpatient providers, and an employment market that will take on someone rebuilding a work history. It is also where most of southern Maine looks for housing after treatment, so certified beds downtown do not stay open long. Keeping every house in one city has a practical payoff for residents: changing addresses within the operator leaves a job, a sponsor, a home group and a clinician untouched.
Applying Through This Portland Sober Living Operator
The organization is small and run by its founder, so inquiries reach the people who run the houses. Applications for any of its Portland addresses go through the operator directly, and the first conversation is best spent on which house fits the structure a person needs at this point. Ask about openings early, since availability in Cumberland County changes week to week, and if the move is coming straight out of treatment, ask a counselor to make the introduction. Operators of this size take clinical referrals seriously.
