I live in Oxford House - Enchanted Woods in Harrisonburg. Oxford Houses are democratically self-governing and self-supporting under the Oxford House system of operations.
I've been in active addiction most of my adult life, I'm not originally from Virginia but this is the place I've first felt comfortable on my own in recovery. The Oxford House foundation is based on addicts in recovery managing their own life and learning to be on their own drug free. If you take away the democracy of the program and letting us govern ourselves it ruins the whole principles that Oxford is built upon. All I know is that it has really helped me in my recovery and has helped me learn how to budget and be responsible so I can live life on life's terms.
I support rules that keep people safe, but rules that require staff or assume every home is a commercial business would keep Oxford Houses from operating in Virginia, even though research shows our model gets the best results. Please change those rules, and please clarify whether house members are considered the operator.
