Keyway Center for Diversion & Reentry

About Keyway Center for Diversion & Reentry

Keyway Center for Diversion & Reentry is a sober living operator in St. Louis, Missouri, running transitional and permanent recovery housing for women and trans individuals leaving incarceration or the justice system.

A Reentry-Focused Recovery Housing Provider

Keyway Center began in 1997 as the Center for Women in Transition, founded by four prison ministry volunteers who saw safe housing as the barrier most likely to send a formerly incarcerated woman back to prison. The organization rebranded to Keyway Center for Diversion & Reentry in 2022 and has served more than 2,700 women since its founding.

Serving Women and Trans Individuals Leaving Incarceration

Keyway Center's housing is built specifically for justice-involved women and trans individuals, a narrower population than most sober living operators serve. Case management, vocational training, behavioral health resources and a housing navigator who maintains landlord relationships across St. Louis all support the housing side of the program.

Three St. Louis Sober Homes

Keyway Center runs three named residences in St. Louis:

• Baker House, apartment-style transitional housing opened in 2005.
• Schirmer House, apartment-style transitional housing opened in 2008.
• Sharon House, permanent supportive recovery housing opened in 2020 and named for founder Sister Sharon Schmitz.

Baker House and Schirmer House serve residents who are currently justice-involved or within six months of release, while Sharon House accepts women at any point after incarceration who commit to a substance-free household and weekly meetings.

Recovery Housing for Trauma Survivors

Keyway Center's program is built around the recognition that nearly all women entering the justice system have experienced significant trauma, and its housing model pairs stable addresses with trauma-focused behavioral health services alongside case management.

Missouri Sober Living Certification

Missouri's certification for recovery residences, through the Missouri Coalition of Recovery Support Providers, is voluntary. Absence from the certified list carries no negative weight, and reentry housing serving a specialized population is not unusual in operating outside that voluntary system.