My name is Brett Starnes I am writing to urge you to revise the proposed recovery residence regulations before they force our doors to close.

?I am a person in long-term recovery. When I came to Oxford House, I had very little left. This house gave me a safe, drug-free, and affordable place to live, but more importantly, it gave me accountability. Oxford House works specifically because it is democratically run by us, the residents. We cook together, pay our own bills, hold weekly business meetings, and immediately vote out anyone who returns to using to protect the sobriety of the home.

?The current draft regulations treat every recovery home like a commercial business with paid staff. We do not have paid staff. We do not have corporate owners. We are an unincorporated group of individuals supporting each other's recovery.

?Requiring us to hire a "staff member" to handle complaints, carry commercial business insurance, or register with the State Corporation Commission does not make us safer. It makes it legally impossible for us to exist.

?If these rules pass as written, you will eliminate 186 Oxford Houses across Virginia and put hundreds of people who are doing the hard work of rebuilding their lives out on the street.

?Please amend these rules to:

?Allow self-governing, peer-led homes to operate without a mandate for paid staff.

?Clearly distinguish between commercial operators and the residents of self-run homes.

?Remove the commercial business insurance and State Corporation Commission requirements for unincorporated associations.

?Oxford House saved my life. Please do not regulate away the only model that has actually been successfully in helping me achieve long term sobriety.