Community Action of South Eastern West Virginia, Inc. – Kennedy Center Coed Recovery House

About this Recovery House

The Kennedy Center is a coed recovery residence on Bland Street in Bluefield, West Virginia, in Mercer County. Forty-six residents live here at no cost, under Level 1 certification from the West Virginia Alliance of Recovery Residences, operated by Community Action of South Eastern West Virginia.

A Forty-Six Bed Sober Living Residence at No Cost

This is one of the largest certified recovery residences in southern West Virginia and one of very few of any size that charges nothing. Men and women are both housed here. Cost is the single most common reason a person leaving treatment in the coalfields ends up in unregulated housing, and a residence of this scale with no fee reaches a population that priced sober living never sees.

What Level 1 Certification Means

Level 1 is the lightest of West Virginia's four tiers, describing peer-run recovery housing with minimal external oversight, where residents largely set and hold the household expectations themselves and no on-site staffing is required. At forty-six beds that model depends on a large, self-sustaining resident community, which is the way the residence is built.

Vouchers and Medication Policy

Beds are eligible for Recovery Housing Program vouchers covering a new low-income resident's first forty-five days. All FDA-approved medications for opioid use disorder and for stimulant use disorder are accepted, a broader position than most operators in the state publish.

Bland Street and Downtown Bluefield

Bland Street runs through the heart of downtown Bluefield, the commercial center built by the Norfolk and Western railroad on the Virginia state line. The address puts residents within walking distance of the downtown core and the transit that serves it, which matters in a residence of this size where few people arrive with a car.

Mercer County Recovery Housing and the Two Virginias

Bluefield is the largest city in Mercer County, sitting against the Virginia line with its twin of the same name across the border. Princeton, ten miles north, is the county seat and holds the courthouse and Princeton Community Hospital. The southern coalfields carry the highest overdose rates in the United States and among the fewest certified beds, so a forty-six bed free residence here serves a catchment reaching far past the city.