I am a member of Victoria Oxford House in Virginia Beach. I am 49 years old, and for more than two decades, my life was completely swallowed by a severe opiate addiction. The state tried to fix me by sending me to expensive commercial rehabs, inpatient facilities, jail cells, and prison blocks. Millions of dollars are poured into those staffed, commercial systems, but none of them could save me. I was completely lost until recovery court gave me a chance, and that chance led me through the front door of Oxford House four years ago.

When I walked into this house, I didn't find another cold institution or a temporary facility with a shift supervisor clocking in and out. I found a family. I found a place where I finally belonged. Because of the unconditional peer support and the profound stability of this home, I have held down the exact same job for all four years I have lived here. Even after graduating from recovery court nearly two years ago, I stayed. I stayed because this isn't a program—this is my home.

The draft regulations you are writing treat every recovery home like a commercial business, but you cannot regulate a family like a corporation. Forcing a house like ours to hire paid staff or register with the State Corporation Commission would completely destroy the magic of what saved my life. We don’t need an outside boss running our lives; we run our house together as absolute equals. We pull our own weight. We pay our own rent and bills, we handle our own chores, and we sit down together at weekly meetings to hold each other accountable. Standing on our own two feet and taking care of each other is exactly what teaches us how to live again. If you force paid staff into our home, you strip away our personal responsibility, which is the very foundation of our sobriety.

I want safety and oversight just as much as anyone, but if these rules pass as they are currently written, you will force all 186 Oxford Houses in Virginia to close their doors. I am begging you to make these three vital changes to save our homes:

1 Remove the requirement for paid staff so peer-led, self-governing houses can survive.

2 Clarify that we, the residents, are not commercial "operators”—we are just everyday people living together in recovery.

3 Stop requiring commercial business insurance and State Corporation Commission registration from unincorporated associations of peers who are simply sharing a household.

Please do not pass rules that treat our sanctuary like a commercial business. If you do, you will shut down Victoria Oxford House, and you will take away the only roof that has ever kept me safe, clean, and alive.