photo by: Bremen Keasey

Hannah Bolton (center), the founder and program director of Cardinal Housing Network, was joined by several people, including Douglas County Commissioners, during a ribbon cutting ceremony for a group home in downtown Lawrence that will provide supportive sober housing for women with substance use disorders. The home, located at 1046 New Hampshire St., will have 10 beds for its residents.

When patients move into Cardinal Housing Network’s new sober living home, Hannah Bolton will be thinking of someone who could relate to their struggles: her brother Sam.

Sam struggled with substance abuse off and on for years, Bolton, the founder and program director of Cardinal Housing Network, said at a ribbon-cutting for the group home at 11th and New Hampshire streets on Wednesday. Sometimes fighting back tears, she talked about her brother’s journey and its ups and downs. At times, he was on the way to recovery. But then he would relapse, and the struggle would start again.

Bolton said one of the most helpful resources for her brother was supportive housing, which he had been in at times. A sober living facility can serve as a transitional step for someone in recovery, which Bolton said is one of the hardest things a person can go through. But, as she and her family were looking for those types of places in Lawrence, there simply weren’t enough facilities open.

“Resources we needed weren’t here,” Bolton said.

Sam died Jan. 8, 2021. He was not in supportive housing at the time of his death.

Bolton had left Lawrence looking for a new start just days before. But after Sam died, she eventually came back, and she started wondering if his legacy could help others in the community who were recovering from addiction — a process that she said can “require creating a whole new life.”

She had her eye on an old office space that was previously set for demolition, but that she thought could become a place for “new beginnings.” Sam had left a life insurance policy, and Bolton and her family used the money to start transforming the location into the new group home.

“(Sam’s presence) was guiding me every day,” Bolton said. “The house … kept me here, which is exactly where I’m supposed to be.”

It’s been a long road for the project, said Bob Tryanski, Douglas County’s director of behavioral health projects. He said he first met with Bolton two years ago after a colleague had told him about Bolton’s vision. At that time, he thought “there’s a long way to go.”

But eventually, Cardinal Housing Network was able to get some financial support from Douglas County, a $383,000 allocation in the county’s 2025 budget, which helped make the house a reality sooner than anticipated.

“It’s a pleasure to see what can happen when resources go to people who want to make (their dream) happen,” Tryanski said.

The building was previously a law office with beige walls — “not on purpose,” Bolton said, but because it had been so long since they had been painted. The beige has now been replaced by comforting and inviting colors — gold, blue, pink. Bolton said she wanted to make the home feel “warm and welcoming” and more hopeful for people in recovery.

In terms of what people living there can expect, the new group home is modeled after an Oxford House, a shared residence where people in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction live together and support each other in a sober environment. It started accepting residents in March, and it has 10 beds available. All of the residents in this home will be women, and they will be encouraged to stay a minimum of 90 days and participate in group programming.

Potential residents to the transitional housing program will have to be referred by a Douglas County agency to stay there. The weekly fee for the program is $125, which includes the rent, internet access, utilities, two meals a day, linens and in-home laundry.

Bolton isn’t going to stop with just one house. She said Cardinal Network plans on opening up two more locations at 1126 and 1128 Ohio St. later this year. Those locations will serve as apartments for women in advanced recovery and their children, options that are needed as part of the city’s and county’s A Place For Everyone campaign to fight homelessness.

Kas, one of the first residents in the group home, also spoke during the ribbon cutting event. She said she is happy to officially open the doors to the group home, in part because of what it will mean for the residents who will soon be starting their journey to recovery.

“This is not just opening the doors to affordable housing,” Kas said. “It’s opening the doors to hope, healing and new beginnings.”

photo by: Bremen Keasey

A photo of the interior of the new group home at 1046 New Hampshire St., including the walls of the living room and dining room. Hannah Bolton, the founder and program director for the Cardinal Housing Network which will run the home, said she wanted to change the walls from boring beige to colors that make residents feel “warm and welcome.”

photo by: Bremen Keasey

Part of the entry way to a new group home at 1046 New Hampshire St. It includes resources for local nonprofits and a sign that welcomes its residents.

photo by: Bremen Keasey

Part of the entry area for the new group home at 1046 New Hampshire St.

photo by: Bremen Keasey

One of the bedrooms for the new group home at 1046 New Hampshire St. The new project, run by Cardinal Housing Network, will have 10 beds available for Douglas County women who are looking for supportive sober housing.