The roots of the Twelfth Step House of San Diego (DBA, Heartland House) began in 1960 as a soup kitchen serving the homeless in downtown San Diego. The early founders soon recognized that food alone would not resolve the many issues of these men on the street and began offering 12-step recovery meetings along with hot meals. The program expanded significantly when funds were raised to open Heartla
nd House, a social model residential recovery center for men. While Heartland House initially focused on alcoholics, it expanded to include men with other substance abuse issues and dual diagnoses. Throughout its 56+ year history, Heartland House has provided a successful patient-centered social model program, adapting our approach in response to ongoing research in the field of addiction recovery as well as changes in the populations affected and in substances abused (such as Oxycodone, Spice, the resurgence of he**in). We serve 28 residents in two facilities – a 20-bed recovery home on Streamview Drive in Southeast San Diego that is fully owned by the organization, and an 8-bed sober living continuing care housing facility in a rental unit across the street. Heartland House currently provides approximately 10,220 bed days per year to recovering alcoholics and addicts, whose average stay lasts between 3 months to a year. Most residents are between the ages of 18-65. We are one of two men’s recovery facilities in the County contracted by the Veterans Administration to take referrals. Typically over 40% of the men we serve are veterans. Heartland House is a longtime San Diego County contractor through the Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) Drug and Alcohol Services, and is one of only two residential treatment facilities in the area contracted by the Veterans Administration. We are also an active partner with Live Well San Diego. We are a substance use disorder residential program licensed and certified by the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS_SUD). Our future holds exciting new changes that will enable us to serve more men and to reduce the wait time to join Heartland House recovery community.
