I am writing because I understand we have a common goal.

As the founder of Healing Properties Sober Living, I would like to let you know about what inspired me to get into this halfway house business and what makes Healing Properties Sober Livng unique.

In March 2002, with a year and a half of sobriety, I fulfilled a dream that I had tried to achieve multiple times in pre-sobriety but, as a result of my alcoholism and drug addiction, I failed to realize. I had been a Real Estate Salesman since I was 18 years old and my dream was to own investment properties.

As I planned my purchase I came to realize Delray Beach was becoming the sobriety capital of the world. Given the fact that I had spent significant time in many different halfway houses and sober living communities through-out my addiction, I felt opening a halfway house would be a wonderful way for me to meld two of my loves; Real Estate and Sobriety.

Soon after making this decision, I opened the doors of my new halfway house determined to surpass all the competition in the quality of the facility and sobriety. The first six months after I opened were the most difficult. I quickly realized I had no idea of what I was getting into! As a young and new businessman, my focus was to make it work financially, with 5 beds, and to supply a home where recovering people could get sober. How naive I was to think that everyone in a Delray Beach halfway house wanted to get sober and would be working a 12 step program. At my first houses meetings I would pull out the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous and, to my horror, my tenants would look at the book as if they had never heard or seen it before. I was amazed! I was saddened that these men had never been given or even exposed to “the Solution” to their problem. It was at that time that I had to make a decision. From that moment forward, the whole focus of Healing Properties Sober Living shifted away from the business aspect and towards introducing my halfway house tenants to the power and the miracle of Alcoholics Anonymous. I also felt my own sobriety would be threatened if I did not help these suffering alcoholics the way that I was so freely helped. This happened nine years ago and the success of Healing Properties Sober Living is the most powerful testament in my life to the power of sobriety through the twelve steps.

I believed and do believe now that if as long as my focus remains the sincere desire to help those who cross the threshold of Healing Properties Sober Living's doors, God will take care of Healing Properties financially. Every decision that I make in regards to the status of my halfway house tenants is in their best interest (drawn from my own experience with sobriety and newcomers) and is never guided by financial considerations. I am committed to ensure that all of my halfway house tenants will have heard the Solution of Alcoholics Anonymous at least one time in their lives! At minimum it will be when they stay at Healing Properties Sober Living.

As I built my halfway house as well as developing my own sobriety and sense of peace, my brother was trying to get sober "again" and I had the unfortunate duty of watching my parents go through the painful experience of “trying to get him sober.” Not understanding their powerlessness, I watched their hopes crushed and their tears fall right in front of my eyes. One of the worst experiences of my life was when I was called by my father to come to my brother’s apartment. When I arrived my brother was locked in his apartment, smoking crack. My father was in the front yard, with tears in his eyes. Hardly audibly he said to me, “What do I do?” This was only the second time I had seen my father cry. The first time being after one of my brother’s many surgeries for the cancer with which he was born with. The only thing that I could say is “let him find his bottom and when it’s time he will ask for help.”. I hear the same cry of helplessness and plea for help far too often from the parents of the sons that are entrusted to me. I know firsthand that this is a family disease and the family has to heal as the alcoholic gets sober. My hope is that I am giving these parents a little solace while their children are staying at Healing Properties Sober Living. This is a responsibility that I am committed to fulfilling always!

Over the past 9 years I have been a witness to the power of God, Alcoholics Anonymous and the philosophy of Healing Properties Sober Living work in so many lives. The miracles are happening everyday around me! I have tried to create an environment for success. In addition to formulating a beneficial and effective philosophy as well as a set of rules, I have organized the financial requirements for admission into Healing Properties Sober Living in the most fair way possible. In light of this, the move in amount is reasonable with most of the initial payment going towards the first weeks of rent. I’ve also added a one week trial period, during which our halfway house tenants can see if Healing Properties Sober Living is exactly the place that they want to start their sobrieties. If, for any reason at all, the new admit is uncomfortable at Healing Properties Sober Lving, he will get a full refund of their unused rents as long as no rules have been violated. This policy is supportive of the fact that I do not want halfway house tenents at Healing Properties Sober Living that are not dedicated to the philosophy of Healing Properties and his personal sobriety. We have an amazing core group of men who are working a 12 step program and I refuse to endanger their sobrieties by introducing someone who will bring chaos into their lives just so I can fill a bed. I consider maintaining the integrity of our Delray Beach halfway house community at Healing Properties my top priority.

What I needed most in my life when I got sober was structure, accountability and responsibility. As it says in our book, “…alcoholics are undisciplined, so we let God discipline us in the simple way we have just outlined [i.e.Step Work]…”(Pg 88). By working the 12 steps I developed the discipline needed to manifest a life beyond my wildest dreams.  This is why Healing Properties Sober Living is as structured as it is. The rules that we have laid down are no different than if one was living the principles of the Program in their lives already and most of my halfway hosue tenants understand that after they have begun to implement the 12 steps into their lives.

I believe that the first few months’ immediately after treatment is where the true transformation occurs; this is the time when sobriety takes hold and a base is created. It is where my halfway house tenants take what they have learned through their treatment centers and apply it into practice. They develop an understanding of Alcoholics Anonymous and works their steps. Healing Properties Sober Living is a place where one can try out life on life’s terms with new sober shoes, make mistakes and come back to a safe place to lick their wounds, in a halfway house where there is support, identification and a common theme to succeed in sobriety.

I believe in the final product of Healing Properties Sober Living so much that my entire staff is now made up of solely Healing Properties success stories. Today, I am surrounded by my staff who have a deep held affection for Healing Properties Sober Living and the way is had helped them to transform their lives. As a result, my staff is more dedicated to the quality of Healing Properties Sober Living than I could ever have dreamed. We love our halfway house facility, we love our sobrieties and we love every new admission with whom we come into contact.

I invite you to come see what we do, anytime.  Our doors are always open.