Danny's House

About Danny's House

Danny's House is a sober living operator in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, providing recovery housing for women in the Mount Airy section of the city. The nonprofit was created in memory of Daniel Brian Paulus, who died of an overdose in 2016, and it has operated as a 501(c)(3) since May 2019.

A Nonprofit Recovery Housing Provider in Philadelphia

This is a charitable organization, and the difference from a for-profit landlord shows up in how a bed is priced. The operator subsidizes its housing and offers stays of up to two years, which is a length very few sober living operators anywhere in Pennsylvania can sustain on rent alone. Its stated mission is holistic support with dignity for women in recovery, and its nonprofit status is public: it files as a 501(c)(3) and maintains a public charity profile, so a family member can look up the organization before making a call.

Two Women's Sober Houses on West Upsal Street

The operator runs two residences, both in Northwest Philadelphia:

• Its original recovery house at 45 West Upsal Street, for women leaving long-term treatment.
• A second house at 43 West Upsal Street, opened in 2023 for independent recovery living.

Two addresses on one street form a small ladder. A resident who arrives needing structure can later move to the more independent house without changing her neighborhood, her commute, her prescriber or the people who know her history, and the organization can keep supporting her through a transition that would otherwise mean leaving the program.

Wraparound Support From a Recovery Housing Provider

Recovery coaching and case management are the core of what this provider adds to a bed. Women arriving from long-term treatment usually face several systems at once, including benefits, medical care, family court, education and employment, and case management is what keeps them in a workable order. A coach also gives a resident someone to talk to on a bad week who is neither a housemate nor a clinician, which is a gap most housing programs never fill.

PARR, DDAP and This Sober Living Operator

The organization presents itself as a licensed recovery house and displays the marks of the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, the Pennsylvania Alliance of Recovery Residences and the national recovery residence standard. Both systems are voluntary in this state, which is exactly why carrying them matters at the operator level. It means the same code of ethics, written disclosure and external complaint path apply at both of its addresses, not just the one a visitor happens to tour.

Serving Women in Northwest Philadelphia

The footprint is one neighborhood, and the operator works where its houses are. Mount Airy and Germantown are among the better-connected parts of the city for someone without a car, with regional rail at Upsal, bus service along Germantown Avenue and employment in Chestnut Hill and Germantown. Philadelphia is its own county, so the city's behavioral health system, courts and benefit offices all fall inside one jurisdiction, and a provider that has worked in it since 2019 knows the referral paths.

Reaching This Philadelphia Sober Living Operator

Applications go directly to the organization. The questions to ask a nonprofit recovery housing provider differ from the ones about a single address: how the subsidy works and what a resident is expected to contribute, how long a stay can run, what qualifies someone for the independent living house, whether referrals come from treatment programs and city behavioral health, whether medication for opioid use disorder is accepted at both addresses, and how a complaint moves past the house to the board. A certified, licensed operator should have every one of those answers on hand.