About this Recovery House
Open Arms for Women is a women's recovery residence on Hudson Avenue in Haverstraw, New York, in Rockland County. Operated by Open Arms Rockland, it is a twelve bed community residence in a renovated Victorian house in the village, and women can stay for up to a year.
A Twelve Bed Women's Recovery Home in the Village
Twelve beds is a deliberate number. It is large enough to sustain a real household, with a rotation of chores, house meetings and shared meals, and small enough that a woman is known by everyone in the building within a week. The house is a renovated Victorian in the Village of Haverstraw, which means high ceilings, a porch and the ordinary domestic layout of a family home. Women arriving from a hospital detox or a residential program usually notice the difference in the first hour.
A Full Year of Recovery Housing
Residents may stay up to a year, and that length of stay changes what the housing can accomplish. Ninety days is enough to stabilize. A year is enough to hold a job through a full cycle of pay periods, complete a court obligation, repair a relationship with a child's school, and save a deposit. Women who leave recovery housing at three months frequently leave with nowhere better to go. A twelve month runway is what turns a bed into an actual transition.
Certification and New York Recovery Residences
New York does not require recovery residences to be certified. Two voluntary programs exist, one through the Office of Addiction Services and Supports under Part 860 and one through the New York State Alliance of Recovery Residences, and an overview of New York sober house certification explains what separates them. Because neither is mandatory, an applicant evaluating a women's recovery home in Rockland County should focus on what the operator will commit to in writing: the fee, the rules, the length of stay, and the discharge policy.
Recovery Housing in Haverstraw and Rockland County
Haverstraw sits on the west bank of the Hudson at the river's widest point, and the village is the densest, most walkable community in a county otherwise built around cars. A passenger ferry crosses to Ossining, connecting to Metro-North's Hudson line and putting Westchester and Manhattan within reach. New City is the county seat, holding the Rockland County courts and county offices, and Montefiore Nyack Hospital serves the area from the south. Rockland Community College is in Suffern. For a woman without a car, Haverstraw is one of the few Rockland addresses where daily life is genuinely manageable.
Open Arms Recovery Homes in Rockland County
Open Arms Rockland runs two community residences in the Village of Haverstraw. This women's house holds twelve beds in a renovated Victorian. The men's residence occupies a duplex with eighteen beds. Both offer stays of up to a year and both are run by the same organization, so a family calling about a placement is talking to people who know both houses.
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.
Welcome to Open Arms
With equal opportunity for all, we are committed to providing our recovery residents with a safe, sober living environment, quality counseling, on-going education about the disease of alcoholism and other drug dependencies, an introduction to the recovery process and programs, and an individualized treatment program with opportunities leading to employment. We believe this recovery home experience will offer our residents the best possible chance to maintain long term sobriety, thereby becoming independent, self-reliant, and self-supporting productive members of society.
