Red House finds new location

After months of uncertainty about the future of the Island’s only substance-use recovery center, the Red House has found a new home. 

It was announced on Wednesday that the Red House Peer Recovery Support Center, which has become an established space for healing on the Island for locals suffering from substance use and addiction, will relocate to a building on the Martha’s Vineyard Community Services (MVCS) campus. Its current lease with the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital was not renewed last April.

Abigail (“Abby”) Foley, chief clinical officer at MVCS, said since the Red House is already a program under the MVCS umbrella, bringing the location closer to its home base felt like kismet. 

“We figured bringing the Red House to the main MVCS campus was a really great way to help support our clients — and the Red House members — with this continuity of care that we’re able to provide,” Foley said to The Times. She added that access to other services at MVCS, like counseling, could be a huge deal for members of the program, and vice versa. 

“Everything’s sort of at our fingertips there, including the Counseling Center and medication-assisted treatment,” Robert Cropper, the director of recovery management services at the Red House, said in an interview. “And because it’s very central on the Island at Community Services, it makes it even better.”

The Red House, which has been open since 2021 after a brief closure in 2020 due to the pandemic, serves about 200 people a week. It offers peer groups, nightly meetings, and various services and activities for individuals in recovery from alcohol or drug use. The center also offers family support. 

“There’s sometimes a lot of feelings associated with seeking recovery and wellness, and this gives us the opportunity to really help support people along that journey, and to feel connected and comfortable,” Foley said. “So we’re really excited just to be able to have a very streamlined approach.”

The move will go into effect on March 1. The new space — in Building D on the MVCS campus — is much larger than the old location, at 2,400 square feet. It’s ADA-accessible, has a commercial kitchen, a discreet reception area that’s separate from the main room, and private offices, all of which are needs that were identified by Red House staff prior to finding a new building. 

“All the needs that were identified were met in this relocation,” the chief advancement officer at MVCS, Patrick Ramage, said in an interview with The Times. “It’s pretty much upgrades across the board for the members, and meets the expanding need that the Red House is facing.”

Last April, staff at the Red House Recovery Center were told its 10-year lease with the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital would not be renewed. The center is currently located in a red house at 12 Beach Road, a stone’s throw from the hospital. Hospital executives at the time said they were prioritizing expanding their specialty and primary care services, and decided not to renew the lease for that reason. They gave the Red House a year to find a new location, in accordance with the lease agreement. 

Although the recovery center is moving, Foley said the Red House will maintain ongoing collaboration with the hospital. 

The move to a permanent place comes at a time when Islanders have cited concerns that their mental health needs, including support for substance abuse, are not being met. A recently published report called the “2025 Community Health Needs Assessment,” put together by the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and Island Health Care, pointed to a lack of services in those areas. 

The assessment included a survey completed by more than a thousand Island residents that showed recovery programs and continued mental health and substance-use care were at the top of the list of concerns for many, with a large portion of the anonymous answers saying their needs were not being met and calling for an increase in care options.
Foley said membership at the Red House has risen significantly in the past few years, and is continuing on an upward trajectory. With more space at the new location, she said the capacity of the center is higher than ever. Cropper said they plan to offer additional nightly meetings in the new office spaces and expand their reach. 

Officials at the Red House and MVCS pointed to a potential for more outreach, and the intention that their services improve to meet the need. 

“That’s one of the biggest things about having this bigger space — is that we’re going to be able to offer more programming, have more flexibility for different offerings, and then have more space for more membership to come in,” Foley said.