Oxford Houses are democratically self-governing and self-supporting under the Oxford House system of operations.  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."

I have seen graduates of the CCAP program come to the Ann Guthmiller Oxford House and have their lives changed for the better.  They are given an opportunity to come to a different environment instead of going back to the same environment they came from that caused them to get into trouble.  They learn to function in a self governing environment.  They learn responsibility.  They learn new conflict resolution techniques and they learn to get along with new and different people.  

Taking away the ability to let Oxford House operate as a self governing entity will result in Oxford House possibly closing its doors.  This would take away an avenue of recovery for so many people.  This would take away an alternative to returning back to the same situation that caused most of the residents to get into trouble in the first place.  This could be very damaging to so many peoples recovery opportunity.

Thank you.