About this Sober House
Kimball Street is a women's recovery residence in downtown Sanford, Maine, operated by Journey House Recovery. It stands in York County, in the southwestern corner of the state, and it holds a particular place in Maine's recovery housing history: it was the first recovery house for women in York County.
The First Women's Recovery House in York County
Journey House Recovery opened its men's house in Sanford first, and three months later opened this house for women — the first of its kind in the county. Before it existed, a woman in York County who needed structured sober housing had to leave the county to find it.
That founding purpose still shapes the house. It is women-only, and it sits in downtown Sanford rather than out on a rural road, which puts the things a resident needs — work, appointments, transport, the rest of the recovery community — within walking reach.
Who Kimball Street Serves
The residence serves women in recovery from substance use disorder, including women on medication-assisted treatment. Journey House Recovery states that it supports multiple and diverse pathways to recovery, MAT included, so a prescribed medication is not a barrier to a place here.
Residents in need of healthcare, psychiatric care or social services receive referrals for those services on entry. That is worth saying plainly, because a great many women arrive at a recovery residence with an untreated mental health condition, a lapsed prescription or an unfiled benefits claim, and a house that makes referrals part of the intake rather than an afterthought removes a common reason that stays fall apart in the first month.
Settling In: The First 30 Days
New residents come in under a probationary period. For the first 30 days, a resident must be in the house between 10pm and 6am. Beyond that probationary month there is no fixed limit on how long a woman may stay — residents may stay as long as they wish.
The structure behind that is the same across Journey House Recovery's houses. The residence is peer-run and low-barrier. Residents abstain from alcohol and other illicit drugs, and are expected to be employed, enrolled in school, or volunteering their time in the community.
Sober Living in Sanford, Maine
Sanford is York County's inland city, a former textile mill town that carries its own hospital services, employers and social service offices rather than depending on Portland. Downtown Sanford, where Kimball Street sits, is the walkable part of it.
For women in the southern Maine towns — Sanford and Springvale, the Berwicks, Alfred, Waterboro, Biddeford and Saco — a certified women's recovery residence in the county seat area means recovery does not have to mean leaving home. Children, family, a job, a probation officer, a treatment provider: most of the reasons a woman cannot simply relocate to Portland for six months are the same reasons a local place matters, and a house in her own county lets her keep every one of those threads intact while she does the work.
Certification and the Wider Organization
Journey House Recovery states that all of its houses are certified by MARR, the Maine Association of Recovery Residences, and that they adhere to the evidence-based standards set out by NARR, the National Alliance of Recovery Residences. A July 2020 Maine recovery residence directory listed a MARR-certified women's residence in Sanford under Journey House Recovery.
The organization runs four houses in total: the two in Sanford, a men's house in Lewiston, and a women's house in South Portland. Applications are handled by the organization rather than at individual houses, and staff support residents with employment, healthcare and social services and with the transition to more independent living at the end of a stay.
