A National Longitudinal Study of the Impact of COVID-19 on Recovery Residences

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACTSafe and stable housing is critical to recovery from alcohol and other drug disorders. Among individuals inrecovery from these disorders, those living in recovery housing are among the most vulnerable. Recoveryhousing is rooted in the social model of recovery, which emphasizes peer support in helping residents maintaintheir recovery. CDC guidance for the general public for managing COVID-19 as well as its guidance for sharedor congregate housing providers may present significant challenges for residential recovery residence operators.Because the majority of recovery residences operate with almost no formal third-party payers to reimburse oroffset costs of this service, furloughs and work stoppages for residents who are responsible for paying for thisservice may contribute financial hardship and closure of recovery residences. To better understand how recoveryresidence are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on recovery housing, this applications aimsto: (1) Examine the extent to which CDC guidance and other best practice guidelines are being implemented inrecovery residences, identify residence and other contextual characteristics related to differentialimplementation, and describe changes in implementation over time; and (2) Examine how the pandemic hasaffected the availability and financial viability of recovery housing, identify whether this impact differs byresidence and other contextual factors, and describe changes in availability and financial viability over time. Toaddress these aims, the proposed study will add questions to the survey administered to residences (N=800)participating in the National Study of Treatment and Addiction Recovery Residence (NSTARR) project(R01AA027782). These questions will query the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has affected sourcesof revenue for the residence, policies and practices, and programming for residents. An additional 200 randomlysampled residences (stratified by US Census Division) will be asked to complete a COVID-19-specific surveythat also collects information on implementation of COVID-19 guidance to ensure resident and staff safety. Theseresidences will be geocoded and linked with US Census data, COVID-19 case rates, and geo-located data forfederally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and publicly-funded hospitals. They will also be resurveyed 6 and 12months later to track changes over time. Finally, operators of residences that are no longer open will be askedto participate in a semi-structured interview about the role that COVID-19 may have played in residence closure.