About this Sober House
Meraki Recovery Housing - Ham Lake #1 is a men's sober living home in Ham Lake, Minnesota, in Anoka County, about ten miles northeast of the county seat at Anoka. It is one of three Meraki houses in the city and one of eight the operator runs across the north metro. No street address is published for the residence, and applications go through Meraki Recovery Housing.
A Men's Sober House in a Small Anoka County City
Ham Lake is a low-density city of lakes and large lots at the northern edge of the metro. The setting suits some men in recovery very well and suits others poorly, and the difference is transportation. A resident with a vehicle and a job in Blaine or Coon Rapids has a quiet address and a short commute. A resident without one leans on rides from housemates, which the house structure partly solves by putting men on similar work and meeting schedules.
The Structure Behind This Recovery Residence
Meraki Recovery Housing runs the same program at every address. Men enter with 28 days of proven sobriety and a negative screen, attend three recovery meetings a week, put in thirty hours of productive activity, sit the Sunday house meeting and take on chores twice a week. The monthly program fee is $700, with a $250 application fee. Those terms are published before anyone applies, and they hold from the first day.
How Certification Works for Minnesota Sober Homes
Certification of recovery residences in Minnesota runs through the Minnesota Association of Sober Homes, the state's affiliate of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences, and state law makes it voluntary. A prospective resident who wants the assurance certification provides can ask directly for the documents it turns on: the written fee disclosure, the house rules, the relapse and discharge policy, and the route a complaint takes if the house cannot resolve it.
Anoka County Recovery Housing and the Northstar Line
Ham Lake has no rail station, and the nearest Northstar stops are at Anoka and Coon Rapids, with Metro Transit service concentrated along the Highway 65 and Highway 10 corridors. The county seat at Anoka carries the courthouse, probation and human services, so a man with court obligations can meet them inside the county he lives in. Blaine's employers and the retail corridor along Highway 65 supply most of the entry-level work residents take.
Choosing Among the Ham Lake Sober Houses
Three Meraki men's houses operate in Ham Lake, and the rest of the network reaches Ramsey, Blaine, Brooklyn Center, Anoka, Coon Rapids and Columbia Heights. Because the program is identical everywhere, the honest question for an applicant is which address he can get to work from.
Sober living houses also called sober homes and sober living environments, are facilities that provide safe housing and supportive, structured living conditions for people exiting drug rehabilitation programs. Sober houses serve as a transitional environment between such programs and mainstream society.
