KATES HOUSE FOUNDATION

Frank and Sherri Candelario, Ph.D. created Kate’s House Foundation® in 2015 to implement our novel model of shared housing to help people with housing insecurity.

Frank and Sherri help people and families who are unhoused and have substance use disorder or mental health issues with safe, affordable shared housing in safe neighborhoods in a model they created. We believe that addiction is a medical condition that should be treated like any other medical disorder. It is not a character flaw or a choice.

Sherri's has a doctorate in pharmacology from University of Washington medical school. Sherri has published research on the mechanism of blocking opioids which informed our philosophy of being among the first homes in neighborhood settings to have people on medically assisted treatment for addiction. This model is highly successful and has led to state recognition for our housing model.

Frank is in real estate and program management. He used these skills to find and create the perfect homes for shared housing, help create programming similar to the nonprofit camps that he administered and to use his camp director hat to create cohorts within our homes that lead to success.

To implement our vision, we used our retirement funds to purchase homes to change the recovery housing model that has existed for 50 years. Other historical and present day clean and sober recovery home models often mean failure to follow house rules, drug relapse or behavior issues would lead to immediate loss of housing, often within 15 minutes. Most other models do not allow medications that are medically proven to stop addiction. We decided to change housing across the US for all vulnerable people and are frequent educators and speakers on our model of housing.

We formed Kate's House with the premise people would be on medication to help addiction or mental health issues and no one would be removed to the street for relapse or failure to follow rules. We saw first-hand, when a young adult in our family experienced the traditional model of clean and sober recovery housing following hospital treatment for addiction. We learned that people would be put out on the curb in 15 minutes for relapse or being late to a house meeting. We do not believe people are disposable. We knew that being removed from the security of housing meant relapse, a return to use and being thrust into unsafe conditions and potentially death. The houses were not always the best and the people running the homes did not honor our family member's needs.

We decided we can and must do better for our struggling people. We could only succeed if we created the program that we envisioned and purchased our homes. We buy single family homes in safe neighborhoods for people in recovery from substance use disorder or addiction, veterans, women and men who are justice involved, foster adults, people who have been trafficked and people in need of safe, secure housing. We created a program that would take the most vulnerable people who are unhoused and help them succeed. We provide outstanding housing and a structure that we created that leads to success. Our social service partners provide funding, services and supervision.

Our focus is person and team centered. We partner with agencies who provide support for our shared clients. We provide outstanding housing and a set of house rules that emphasized kindness and structure. We invest in people and are changing the world.

We are active politically to stop the housing practices that harm vulnerable people in need of housing. Sherri was 2022 co-chair of the Recovery Support Services Committee of Washington state's SURSA subcommittee. Our committee was a think tank to proposed legislation that would help all people with substance use issues.