Identification of Retention in Oxford Houses and Other Types of Recovery Housing: A Scoping Review

Background: Substance use disorder (SUD) is a public health crisis in the United States (U.S.), with the associated mortality rates at an all-time high. Having access to Recovery Housing (RH), and other Recovery Support Services (RSSs), supports the development of “recovery capital”, the ‘physical, social, human, and cultural resources’ that can be drawn upon to initiate and help sustain long term recovery. Objectives: In this study, a scoping review of the literature was conducted to identify retention in Oxford Housing (OH) and other types of RH. Searching five databases, the search string strategy was developed to cast a broad net, using terms synonymous with “substance use disorder” and “recovery housing” to capture the highest number of relevant articles. Results: The initial search yielded 30,203 studies, with 22 studies retained and included in the final set. Overarching constructs included mental health, demographic factors, and social networks (6/22, 27.2% respectively), as well as house environment/house fit (5/22, 22.7%) and their respective impact on OH and RH retention. Conclusions: However, the individual and programmatic factors that lead to greater resident retention are not well understood. Future research efforts should be focused on further examination of these four factors, and other potential factors within the context of impacting OH and RH retention.