07/28/2026
Lawrence Spain has been running men's sober living homes (Spain Sober Living) in Austin for eight years. Lawrence also sits on the board of Austin TAAP. We asked him what actually works.
1. He calls every resident's recovery sponsor once a month, just to confirm the sponsor is real and checking in.
2. His intake is three steps. He interviews the applicant, his house manager does a separate follow-up call, then he calls the family himself. The family call is where the real picture shows up, including how many months they are actually willing to fund.
3. He mixes ages deliberately. An 18 or 19 year old needs a 35 year old in the house to model off of.
4. Recovery coaching goes to an outside coach, never the owner. A resident may not be fully honest with the person who controls where he sleeps.
5. Cars stay at the family's house for the first 30 days, unless the car was already with him at treatment. What addiction took away gets earned back.
6. On insurance, the specialist broker who spoke at his owners' meeting flagged two things most policies miss: single rooms carry more overdose risk than doubles, and the policy has to spell out exactly who you accept and who you decline.
Full interview plus a written Q&A:
Meta description: Austin operator Lawrence Spain on family communication, recovery coaching, insurance, vetting applicants, and why sober living is not a cash cow. Full video interview plus written Q&A.
