18th Street Community Church

About 18th Street Community Church

18th Street Community Church is a Blair County congregation operating licensed recovery housing in Altoona, Pennsylvania, under the name Sanctuary House.

A Congregation-Run Recovery Housing Provider

18th Street Community Church runs its recovery housing as an extension of its congregational work rather than as a separate nonprofit brand. That structure means the church's own leadership and community are directly involved in running the houses, not a hired staff answering to a distant board.

Three Sanctuary House Locations in Altoona

The church operates three licensed recovery houses in Altoona under the Sanctuary House name:

• Sanctuary House, 9th Street, for women.
• Sanctuary House, 14th Street, for men.
• Sanctuary House, 4th Avenue, for men.

Splitting the houses by gender lets the church run a women's residence and two men's residences under one program, with a resident able to move between the men's houses if a different setting fits better.

Act 59 Licensing for All Three Houses

Each Sanctuary House address is licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs under Act 59 of 2017. Licensure in Pennsylvania is voluntary, so a church that has licensed every house it runs has taken on state inspection standards beyond what its own congregation would require.

Serving Men and Women in Altoona

Two of the three Sanctuary House addresses serve men and one serves women, and the church keeps each house single-gender rather than mixing residents. That separation is standard practice across recovery housing and lets house rules and shared space work for one population at a time.

Altoona and Blair County

Altoona is Blair County's largest city and its commercial and medical center, and all three Sanctuary House addresses sit inside the city, within reach of downtown services, outpatient providers and the local Altoona Metro Transit system.

Applying Through 18th Street Community Church

Anyone interested in Sanctuary House should contact 18th Street Community Church directly. The church coordinates intake across all three addresses and can speak to current openings, gender placement and what the program expects of a resident.