About this Recovery House
Ready, Willing & Able is a men's sober living home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia County. Licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs to house up to 61 men at a time, it pairs recovery housing with paid work, a model the organization has run in the city since 2001.
A Large Men's Recovery House on Bainbridge Street
Ready, Willing & Able serves men with a substance use disorder, and its Bainbridge Street residence is sized differently than a typical sober house: up to 61 men can live there at once, large enough to staff a full daily work crew every morning. The address sits in South Philadelphia, close to Center City and the transit lines that carry residents to job sites and appointments across the city.
What DDAP Licensing at This Scale Means
A residence licensed to house 61 men has accepted a correspondingly higher level of state oversight from Pennsylvania's Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, which inspects licensed recovery houses under Act 59 of 2017. That license, combined with a staff that includes people with their own recovery experience, is the backbone of a structure built to run at this size without losing the accountability a smaller house takes for granted.
Paid Work as the Program's Core
Residents at Ready, Willing & Able average around six months of paid work experience during their stay, alongside three daily meals and recovery support services. The work is the differentiator: the program builds paid employment into daily life from the start, aimed at independent living and full-time employment as the endpoint alongside sobriety.
Recovery Housing in South Philadelphia
Philadelphia is both the city and the county, and Bainbridge Street sits in a dense, transit-rich part of it, giving residents direct access to job sites, outpatient providers and courts without needing a car. For a large residential recovery program, that density is part of what makes the work component possible at scale.
Applying to Ready, Willing & Able in Philadelphia
Admission runs through the organization directly. Applicants should expect the process to cover both recovery status and readiness for daily paid work, since the program treats the two together.
 Community Improvement Project
After 30 days in RWA sober houses, trainees start work that changes lives and improves our city. Trainees perform highly visible work, such as street cleaning or landscaping, and focus on building a work ethic as well as developing the "soft skills" of employment:​
-Punctuality
-Teamwork
-Following instructions from supervisors
Our location at communities throughout Philadelphia
Philadelphia sober living trainees also help keep public parks within the Philadelphia Department of Parks & Recreation system looking beautiful with supplemental maintenance services. In Fairmount Park alone, each crew removes nearly 300 bags of litter and debris from the park every week. RWA trainees, dressed in their trademark bright blue uniforms, are frequently seen working hard in these locales.
Kelly Drive and Boathouse Row, and throughout East Fairmount Park
Belmont Plateau, and throughout West
Fairmount Park
LOVE Park
Rittenhouse Square
Benjamin Franklin Parkway
FDR Park
Packer Park
We are also proud to be a cleaning and maintenance provider for other community improvement projects in the City of Philadelphia:
-American Street Empowerment Zone.
Community Land Care and Vacant Lot Maintenance Programs (with Pennsylvania Horticultural Society).
Already able to help those less fortunate
Ready, Willing & Able (RWA)Â sober living crews are contracted to maintain three homeless shelters by the Office of Supportive Housing. For our formerly homeless trainees, this is a particularly poignant task that acts as a powerful motivator to homeless people still there.
​Philadelphia sober living trainee crews clean bathrooms, bedrooms, and facility kitchens as well as maintain the floors and the perimeters of the following shelters:
Stenton Family Manor
Woodstock Family Center
Apple Tree Family Center
