Recovery Centers of America at Capital Region has opened a new 20-bed Recovery Residence on its Waldorf campus, giving patients enrolled in outpatient addiction treatment a structured, substance-free place to live while they continue their care.
The residence, announced Aug. 3, is designed for people transitioning out of a higher level of care, such as residential treatment or medical detox, or who otherwise need stable housing to support outpatient programming. Participation in an outpatient program at the facility is required to live there. Residents share rooms and meals and have access to house meetings, peer support, planned sober recreational activities and personal communication devices, along with what the facility describes as a recovery-focused living environment built around community accountability.
“We’ve seen what happens when someone leaves treatment and goes right back into an unstable environment,” said Ross Friedman, regional vice president and interim CEO of RCA at Capital Region, in a statement announcing the residence. Friedman said the goal is to give outpatient patients “a real shot at staying sober” by pairing treatment with a stable place to live while they do the work of recovery.
The new residence addresses a gap that researchers and federal health officials have identified as one of the more consistent risk factors in early recovery: unstable housing. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration defines recovery housing as an intervention specifically designed to give people in recovery a safe living environment paired with peer and recovery supports, distinct from clinical treatment itself.
Facilities that meet national standards set by the National Alliance of Recovery Residences, formed in 2011 after a series of fraud cases involving unregulated sober-living operators, are built around shared components of quality, access and resident choice, with a formal code of ethics governing how the homes are run.
Research on the model has generally found better outcomes for people who combine outpatient treatment with structured sober housing rather than returning directly to independent living. One study following people who paired recovery housing with outpatient substance use treatment found significant improvements in abstinence and employment rates and a reduction in arrest rates, with roughly three-quarters of participants remaining in a recovery house for at least five months. Broader analyses of recovery housing programs affiliated with a treatment provider, similar to the model RCA is using in Waldorf, have found higher odds of sustained abstinence compared with standalone or unaffiliated sober-living homes.
RCA at Capital Region has operated its Waldorf campus, since 2018, offering medical detox, residential treatment and outpatient care for adults with substance use disorders. The facility offers a full continuum of care ranging from medically monitored detox and residential treatment to more flexible outpatient tracks, including a WorkFlex option that allows patients to continue working or attending school while receiving care. RCA at Capital Region was ranked sixth among Maryland facilities on Newsweek’s 2024 list of America’s Best Addiction Treatment Centers. The Waldorf location is part of Recovery Centers of America’s broader network, which the company has operated since founding in 2015 and which now spans multiple facilities along the East Coast.
The new residence comes as Charles County and the broader Southern Maryland region continue to grapple with substance use and overdose deaths. St. Mary’s County has continued to fund a dedicated overdose and drug awareness coordinator position within its sheriff’s office in recent years, and Charles County has separately seen a string of trafficking-related arrests in and around Waldorf, underscoring the strain drug activity has placed on the community RCA’s Waldorf campus serves. Officials in the region have repeatedly pointed to a lack of stable, structured housing as one of the harder gaps to close for people leaving treatment, since a return to unstable living situations often means a return to the environments tied to a person’s substance use.
RCA at Capital Region said it will continue offering its existing continuum of care alongside the new residence, from residential treatment through outpatient services, for adults seeking help with substance use disorder. More information about the Waldorf campus and the new Recovery Residence is available on the company’s website.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use, help is available through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357.
