Catholic Charities Family and Community Services

About Catholic Charities Family and Community Services

Catholic Charities Family and Community Services is a sober living operator in Rochester, New York, running recovery housing across Monroe and Wayne Counties. Its addiction programs operate under the Restart name and range from congregate community residences to a community-based apartment program.

A Rochester Recovery Housing Provider Inside a Larger Agency

This is a human services agency that runs recovery housing as one part of a much wider operation. The practical consequence for a resident is scale and continuity. Case management, vocational referrals, family services and housing all sit inside one organization, so a person who needs three of them is not assembling them from three unconnected providers. The addiction programs carry the Restart name across intensive residential services, community residential programs and supportive living.

Serving Rochester, Monroe County and Wayne County

Several recovery homes carry the Catholic Charities Family and Community Services name:

• Freedom House, on Hobart Street in Rochester, with 30 beds.
• Liberty Manor, on St. Paul Street in Rochester, with 16 beds.
• Alexander House, on North Clinton Avenue in Rochester, for 21 men.
• Jones House, on Jones Avenue in Rochester, for 24 men.
• Barrington RRi, on East Ridge Road in Rochester, with 23 beds.
• Barrington House, on East Ridge Road in Rochester, for women.
• Hannick Hall, on South Clinton Street in Newark, Wayne County, with 31 beds.

A community-based supportive living program, administered from North Clinton Avenue, places residents in apartments across the Rochester area. Six of the addresses are inside the city of Rochester and one is in the village of Newark, which means most residents can change programs without changing bus routes, doctors or probation officers.

Men's and Women's Sober Houses Under One Operator

The portfolio covers distinct populations. Alexander House and Jones House are men's residences. Barrington House is a women's community residence built with accommodations for a small number of children, which addresses the reason a great many women decline residential treatment outright. The supportive living program serves men and women in community apartments. Running the full range means an intake worker can place a person by need instead of placing them in whatever happens to be open.

State Certification Across the Recovery Homes

Five of these addresses hold certification from the New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports under Part 820, the regulation governing residential addiction services. Certification is granted program by program, so anyone comparing options should confirm what the specific program they are entering holds. New York does not require recovery housing to be certified at all, and an operator carrying state certification across most of its portfolio has accepted a framework of staffing standards, resident rights, inspection and external complaint review it could have declined. The certification picture in New York is worth understanding before comparing providers.

State Investment in This Recovery Housing Provider

New York put more than $2.5 million into the renovation of the organization's Jones Avenue residence across 2020 and 2021, and the building reopened in July 2021 with trauma-informed design and accessibility that meets the Americans with Disabilities Act. Capital investment at that level is a signal about the relationship between an operator and the state agency that regulates it. The rebuilt residence alone serves over 200 men each year.

One Application Across Several Levels of Care

Applications run through Catholic Charities Family and Community Services, and that is the case for choosing a multi-program operator. A person entering a congregate residence is inside an organization that also runs supportive apartments, so the step down happens as a transfer instead of a new application to a stranger. Eligibility for supportive living is set by the state's level of care determination, and the intake staff handle that assessment as part of the same conversation.

Who These Rochester Recovery Homes Are For

The programs suit adults leaving detox, inpatient treatment or incarceration who are clinically stable and need housing with structure while they rebuild work, family and legal standing. Someone who needs medical supervision on site is a poor match for the residential programs. Referrals arrive from hospitals, outpatient providers, the Monroe County courts and county social services, and residents who apply on their own meet the same criteria.