New Door Sober Living Corp

About New Door Sober Living Corp

New Door Sober Living Corp is a sober living operator in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, running a nine-resident recovery house on the Door Peninsula. Co-founders Angie Levens and Eli Phillips opened it in 2021 after identifying a shortage of sober housing in the county.

A Door County Recovery Housing Provider

New Door Sober Living runs its house on a nonprofit membership model: residents pay for bed and meals, not a market-rate rent, and the organization keeps the model deliberately simple. Chores are assigned, recovery meeting attendance is required, and basic life skills are taught to residents who need them. Some residents find work through the founders' own contracting business or resale store, though outside employment is common too.

Serving Door and Kewaunee Counties

The Sturgeon Bay house is registered with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services recovery residence registry with a capacity of nine, and it has been, at times, the only Door County residence on that list. Sturgeon Bay is the seat of Door County and the service hub for the peninsula and for Kewaunee County to the south, which puts the courthouse, the county health department and the main hospital inside the same small city as the house.

What the State Registry Records, and What It Does Not

Registration under Wis. Stat. section 46.234 is voluntary and self-attested. It stops short of an inspection or a license. It is still a public record confirming the house exists and identifying who runs it, which carries real weight in a county with few other sober living options to compare against. Certification through the Wisconsin Association of Sober Housing is a separate, equally voluntary step this operator has not taken.

What Recovery Looks Like After the Frost Sets In

Co-founder Eli Phillips has described a seasonal pattern in demand: calls for a bed pick up once winter weather sets in and options for people without stable housing narrow. Door and Kewaunee counties have limited emergency shelter capacity in the cold months, which makes a working sober house one of the few consistent options for someone trying to stay housed and sober through a Wisconsin winter.

Reaching New Door Sober Living Corp

Applications go directly to the organization. Because this runs on a membership model, the questions are slightly different from a standard sober house: what the fee covers, how chores and meeting attendance are enforced, whether work through the founders' businesses is expected or optional, and how long a resident typically stays. An operator running the same house since 2021 should have practiced answers.