Novak's House

About Novak's House

Novak's House is a sober living operator in Wilmington, Delaware, providing recovery housing in New Castle County. Brandon Novak and George Evagelou founded it in 2020. Both are in recovery from addiction, and they built the organization around what they hold early sobriety actually requires: a safe place to live and a schedule that fills the day.

A Wilmington Sober Living Operator Founded in Recovery

Both founders came to this work through their own recovery, and the organization's public voice reflects it. Brandon Novak spent years as a professional skateboarder and later wrote and spoke publicly about heroin addiction, which gives the operation a visibility few small recovery housing providers ever have. The practical effect on a resident cuts both ways. A recognizable name brings referrals, attention and a degree of accountability. It establishes nothing on its own about what happens inside a house, which is why the questions further down this page are the ones to put to the operator.

What This Recovery Housing Provider Expects of Residents

The operator publishes one set of expectations, and they are demanding by the standards of recovery housing. A new resident works through a thirty day transition phase with no overnights away and sober company when leaving the house. After that, a nightly curfew, random drug testing, a weekly house meeting, five twelve step meetings a week, a sponsor, a home group and completion of any counselor recommended treatment all stay in force. An applicant looking for a light touch arrangement should look elsewhere. An applicant who already knows that unstructured time is the problem will find the structure is the point.

Twelve Step Recovery Housing in New Castle County

This is explicitly twelve step housing. The operator builds the week around fellowship attendance, sponsorship and a home group, and supplements it with educational recovery and relapse prevention sessions, gender specific meetings, community meals and family support. Wilmington and the surrounding county carry a dense meeting schedule, which is what makes a five meeting week realistic for someone without a car. Delaware's Department of Health and Social Services maintains statewide treatment and recovery resources for residents who need clinical care alongside it.

Reaching This Wilmington Sober Living Operator

Applications go directly to the operator. The company level questions are worth separating from the house level ones: how long it has housed residents in New Castle County, whether it takes referrals from treatment providers and the courts, how fees and deposits are documented and refunded, whether medication for opioid use disorder is accepted, and how a complaint gets past a house manager to the people who run the organization. Delaware certifies recovery residences through the First State Alliance of Recovery Residences under the Matthew Klosowski Act, and asking an operator where it stands with FSARR is a reasonable opening question.