About this Sober House
Tri-County Community Action Program operates a recovery residence and emergency shelter program in Berlin, New Hampshire, in Coos County, through its Housing Stability division. The agency has served the North Country for decades, and its Berlin office coordinates emergency shelter, housing placement and a wide range of family support programs across the tri-county area.
Shelter and Housing Placement on School Street
The School Street location is where Tri-County Community Action Program's Housing Stability team runs its shelter and housing placement work for Berlin and the surrounding Coos County towns. The best known of the agency's residential programs is the Burch House Shelter, which houses women eighteen and older, including women with dependent children, from the tri-county priority area, with room for up to fifteen people at a time. Intake runs around the clock, which matters for someone arriving in crisis with nowhere else to go that night.
Case Management Alongside a Place to Stay
A bed is only part of what the program offers. Residents get case management, referrals to outside services, and direct help finding permanent housing once they're ready to move on. The building also functions as a resource hub, with a kitchen, a food pantry, laundry access and connections to job skills programs sitting alongside the shelter beds, so someone staying there works on more than just their next address.
A Regional Community Action Agency
Housing is one piece of a larger operation. Tri-County Community Action Program also runs Head Start early childhood programs, senior meal sites, home energy assistance, weatherization and public transportation across its service area, and it operates similar shelter programs elsewhere in the region as well. That breadth means a resident dealing with a housing crisis can often get help with heat, transportation or benefits from the same agency without a separate referral.
Certification Is Voluntary for New Hampshire Housing Programs
New Hampshire does not require every housing or shelter program to certify as a recovery residence, and Tri-County Community Action Program is not currently listed with the New Hampshire Partnership for Recovery Residences, the agency the state designates to certify recovery housing. That's ordinary for a general-purpose shelter program instead of a dedicated sober living home, and it says nothing about the quality of the housing or case management on offer.
Coos County and the Great North Woods
Berlin sits in Coos County, in the Great North Woods, well north of Lancaster, the county seat, and far from the denser services clustered around Manchester and Nashua. For people in the North Country, that distance is exactly why an agency like this matters: it's the closest source of emergency shelter, case management and housing help without a long drive south. New Hampshire's Department of Health and Human Services maintains statewide recovery housing resources for residents anywhere in the state, Berlin included.
Reaching Tri-County Community Action Program in Berlin
Anyone considering a stay should ask directly which specific program fits: the Burch House Shelter for women and children, or another housing-stability service for a different situation. Referrals come from case workers, hospitals, law enforcement and self-referral alike, and staff can direct a caller to the right program inside the agency instead of turning them away.
