I am the mother of a woman who has fought very hard to rebuild her life through recovery, and I am writing because I have personally witnessed the difference Oxford House has made in my daughter’s life.

There was a time when I was terrified that I was going to lose my daughter. I watched addiction take pieces of her away from our family and from herself. I watched the person I knew struggle with things that no mother ever wants to see her child experience. There were moments when I honestly did not know what her future would look like.

My daughter lives in an Oxford House in North Chesterfield, and that home has become much more than simply a place where she sleeps. It has become part of her recovery community. It has given her an environment where she has had to learn responsibility, accountability, communication, finances, conflict resolution, and how to live alongside other people who are also working to maintain their sobriety.

Most importantly, Oxford House has given my daughter something that addiction took away from her: a sense of belonging and purpose.

I have watched her grow into someone who wants to help other people. I have watched her take on responsibilities within her house and within the larger Oxford House community. I have watched her find her voice again. As her mother, that means more to me than any title or position she could ever hold.

I understand that homes need to be safe and that reasonable rules and regulations have a purpose. I am not asking for Oxford Houses to be above the law or exempt from legitimate safety requirements.

What concerns me is the possibility of changing the very structure that has allowed my daughter and countless others to succeed.

My daughter does not live in a traditional treatment facility. She lives in a home where people in recovery participate in running their own household and support one another. That responsibility is not simply an administrative detail. It is part of the recovery process.

When you take away the opportunity for residents to govern their own home, make decisions together, manage their responsibilities, resolve conflicts, and hold one another accountable, you risk taking away some of the very experiences that helped my daughter become the woman she is today.

I ask that the people making decisions about Oxford Houses in Virginia take the time to understand what these homes actually mean to the people living in them and to the families who have watched their loved ones recover there.

I am not speaking only as a mother who wants to protect her daughter. I am speaking as a mother who has watched her daughter get a second chance at life.

Please do not create requirements that could prevent Oxford Houses from continuing to operate in the way that has helped my daughter and so many others build lives in recovery.

My daughter has worked hard for the life she has today. Her Oxford House community has been part of that journey. As her mother, I want her home to remain a place where people in recovery can take responsibility for their lives, support one another, and continue moving forward.

I am asking that Virginia protect the ability of Oxford House residents to live in a safe, supportive, self-governed recovery environment without unnecessarily changing the foundation of the model that brought them there in the first place.