MOSES LAKE — The house on Ashley Way looks like most other houses in the neighborhood. It’s got an upstairs and a downstairs, bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen and a deck. But it’s an Oxford House, which means it also holds hope.
“When I first moved into (an) Oxford house. Dec. 5, 2022, everything I owned fit in this briefcase, maybe three feet long,” said Shane Reed, who lives in another Oxford House across town. “And now I have my own car, license, insurance, a full-time job. I can’t fit all my stuff in the storage shed, if I wanted to … I have a daughter that’s 24 and about six months ago, I found out I’m a grandfather.”
Oxford House is a sort of halfway house for recovering addicts and alcoholics, with a twist: the residents run the place themselves. There’s a zero-tolerance policy on relapsing; one use of drugs or alcohol and you’re out. The residents all share equally in the rent and the household chores, and everything is voted on. The houses are rented, not purchased, in neighborhoods that don’t have a history of crime or drugs. It may sound like a risky proposition — addicts policing themselves — but Oxford House alumni have a better than 80% chance of staying clean, according to Oxford House statistics. …