Scholar · Author · Advocate
Founder and Executive Director of Vanderburgh Sober Living. Author, educator, and advocate for people in recovery.
Credentials
A decade of building recovery housing, and the academic and policy work that goes with it.
435+
Operators Supported
4,000+
Residents Served
100+
Published Titles
430+
Articles Published
Doctorate
Doctoral research on social franchising as a model for scaling recovery housing. The dissertation is published and publicly available.
Graduate Study
Concentration in business management, with master’s certificates in Strategic Management and Corporate Finance. B.B.A. summa cum laude, Isenberg School of Management, UMass Amherst.
Authorship
Across the recovery housing guides and the state-specific editions of the Opening Doors to Recovery Housing series.
Operator Support
Recovery home operators trained and supported across the United States, inside the largest network of certified NARR Level II recovery residences in the country.
Policy
Invited testimony before the Georgia State Senate study committee on recovery residences in November 2025. Selected as an expert witness in the Superior Court of California, San Diego, with that testimony scheduled for 2026.
Teaching
Teaching Fellow at Harvard University, 2020 to 2021. Teaching Fellow at Hult International Business School, 2018 to 2019. Lead Instructor at Vanderburgh Sober Living since 2020.
Follow along
Dr. Foote and the Vanderburgh Sober Living team publish new home tours, operator interviews, certification updates, and field notes from the network every week.
Dr. Foote’s personal site, Amazon author page, and other profiles are listed at the bottom of this page.
Biography
Dr. Hunter T. Foote has spent his career on a single question: how do you make sure a person in recovery has a safe place to live, and a voice in the decisions that shape it?
He is the founder and Executive Director of Vanderburgh Sober Living, which he started in 2015, and of the Vanderburgh Foundation, the chartering organization he formed in 2019. Together they have supported more than four hundred thirty-five recovery home operators across the United States, and more than four thousand men and women rebuilding lives free from substance use. The Foundation built the first nonprofit recovery residence Charter system for NARR Level II homes in North America, and by 2022 it had grown into the largest network of certified Level II recovery residences in the country.
The work has always been as much about standing up for people as it is about buildings. Recovery housing is one of the few forms of housing that neighbors organize against and that local codes were never written to accommodate. Dr. Foote has spent a decade in those rooms, arguing for residents who are rarely invited to speak for themselves: before state legislatures, in zoning hearings, in certification bodies, and in court. He built a comprehensive Operator and House Mentor Training Program on the NARR 3.0 Standards with Harvard University and Hult International Business School educators, and earned certification through RICARES, MASH, MARR, CTARR, NCARR, and others so that the standard is documented rather than assumed.
In 2016 Vanderburgh became the first Certified B Corporation in the City of Worcester, recognized by B Lab. The distinction matters to him for a plain reason: it puts the mission in the legal structure of the organization, where it cannot quietly be traded away.
Alongside that work he has been a teacher and a writer. He earned his Ph.D. from Salve Regina University with dissertation research on how social franchising lets a mission grow without losing itself, served as a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University and Hult International Business School, and has published more than one hundred titles that put what he has learned in the hands of the next operator.
Humanitarian Work
Speaking up where the people affected are not in the room.
From state house hearings in the United States to agricultural, orphan care, and neonatal health projects in East and West Africa, the through line is the same: build the structure that lets good intentions actually reach people.
Testimony before the Georgia State Senate on recovery housing policy, selection as an expert witness in the Superior Court of California with testimony scheduled for 2026, and years of zoning and certification advocacy in New England. The argument is consistent: clear standards protect residents, and vague rules are what keep homes from opening.
An ongoing affiliation with the Functional Food and Amaranth Resource Center in Kenya and Uganda. He consulted with founder Dr. Mwangi on the feasibility of an agricultural training center outside Nairobi, conducting site visits and analysis on the ground.
Advisory work and site visits with Three Strands Orphan Rescue, which supports three government-licensed children’s homes in Jinja and the Luuka District of Uganda, covering shelter, food, medical care and schooling.
As CFO of Therapeutic Innovation from 2024 through 2026, he helped develop the first cost-effective mobile neonatal CPAP device built for intensive care in developing nations, completing product testing in Ghana. The project was a semifinalist for the 2025 Black Ambition Prize.
The Work
Most people who want to open a home are not short on motivation. They are short on a map.
Dr. Foote’s books take the parts of this work that are usually learned the hard way, including financing structures, zoning conversations, certification standards, and the daily realities of running a home, and set them down in language a first-time operator can actually use.
The work spans practical guides, legal analysis, and academic research, and it is grounded in more than a decade of building and operating homes rather than in theory alone.
“Good intentions scale only when they are given structure.”
Books
Twelve guides and a state-specific series that together run to more than 100 published titles, covering the law, the financing, the buildout, and the daily practice of running a recovery residence.
Recovery Housing Law & Practice
How to Buy a Sober House
How to Finance Recovery Housing
How to Upfit Properties for Recovery Housing
Shared Living By Design
The Complete House Mentor Playbook
Recovery Home Fundraising Blueprint
How to Open a Sober House
The Path to Purposeful Recovery Housing
Sober Living A.I. Outreach Toolkit
Built to Fix, but Left Behind
Understanding ChristianeseSeries
A three-book sequence that follows a property from purchase through financing to occupancy: How to Buy a Sober House, How to Finance Recovery Housing, and How to Upfit Properties for Recovery Housing.
Series
A state-by-state collection written for operators, developers, and community leaders. Each book is tailored to one state’s legal, regulatory, and operational landscape rather than offering generic guidance.
Work with the team
Every framework on this page came out of running real homes and helping other people open theirs. If you are weighing a property, a first home, or an investment in recovery housing, the fastest next step is a conversation with someone who has done it.
Or call (844) 762-3747, weekdays 8a–5p.
Tell us where you are and a member of the VSL team will follow up within one business day. No cost, no obligation.
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Research
Recovery housing is governed state by state, and very little of it has been measured. These are the studies published under Dr. Foote’s name, with their methods and their limits stated in the open.
A 50-state index of how favorable each state is for opening and operating a certified sober living home, built from six weighted sub-indices. Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
Read the Report →
Doctoral research examining how a franchising structure can extend independent operator ownership while holding a shared standard of care. Archived in the university’s institutional repository.
Read the Dissertation →
Foote, Hunter T. 2026. Vanderburgh Sober Living Operating Climate Index, 2026 Edition. Technical Report 2026.1. Webster, MA: Vanderburgh Sober Living.
ORCID: 0009-0002-8111-7448
Every state profile and every index score starts from primary sources: state statutes and regulations, the certification bodies affiliated with the National Alliance for Recovery Residences, municipal zoning codes, and published court decisions. Index scores are assigned against a published rubric and are treated as judgments rather than measurements, with the rubric, the weights, and the limitations stated alongside the results, and figures drawn from Vanderburgh Sober Living’s own operations labeled as operator experience. Dr. Foote reviews and approves the articles published under his name on this site; because regulatory conditions change, any article resting on a citation that has since been amended carries a revision date, and errors can be reported through the contact form with the address of the page.
Selected Writing
Dr. Foote has published more than 430 articles on recovery housing law, certification, zoning, financing, and operations, organized state by state. A few that set out the thinking behind the rest:
Georgia’s evolving policy landscape, the Senate Study Committee, and the four recommendations Dr. Foote brought before lawmakers.
Read the Article →
How the VSL Developer Partnership Model reframes recovery housing as a scalable real estate strategy that aligns capital with community.
Read the Article →
Why generic guidance fails operators, and what a state-specific resource covers instead: compliance, local ecosystems, and real conditions.
Read the Article →
The third book in the development series, on preparing residential property for certification and occupancy.
Read the Article →
Organizations
Mission-driven organizations across recovery housing, healthcare, education, and travel, each built to solve a problem that markets alone were not solving.
vanderburghhouse.com
Structured recovery housing. More than four hundred thirty-five recovery home operators supported across the United States, and over four thousand men and women rebuilding lives free from substance use, with an Operator and House Mentor Training Program built on NARR 3.0 Standards and certification through RICARES, MASH, MARR, CTARR, and NCARR.
vanderburghcommunities.com
The chartering organization for recovery housing, and the first nonprofit recovery residence Charter system for NARR Level II homes in North America. Grew to the largest network of certified Level II recovery residences in the United States in 2022, and co-developed a $22 million recovery housing real estate investment fund.
ralroadmap.com
An operator development platform for residential assisted living, giving founders the state licensing guidance, planning tools, and mentorship to open small home-based senior care residences.
ricolimosafaris.com
Impact travel across Kenya. The work is about getting people to the places that need them: coordinating travel for mission-related organizations, working through local expert guides, paying staff fair wages, and directing support to the communities that host every trip.
therapeuticinnovation.com
Medical device research and development. Developed the first cost-effective mobile neonatal CPAP device for intensive care in developing nations, completed product testing in Ghana, and was a semifinalist for the Black Ambition Prize.
greenrater.com
Green building and energy efficiency consulting and development across the Northeast. Named to Inc. Magazine’s Top 5,000 Privately Owned Companies and #1 in Worcester, MA, with an Excelsior Award from New York State AIA and Energy Star Partner of the Year recognition.
aeroventure.org
Aerospace education and flight training. Awarded AOPA’s National Best Flight School in 2015 and 2019, the only school in history to win twice, and developed a nationally accredited collegiate program for professional pilot training.
Academics
Degrees earned while the homes were being built, and the classrooms and courtrooms that came out of it.
Scaling Social Enterprise: How Social Franchising Supports Sustainable Growth and Impact examines how mission-driven ventures can use franchising frameworks to grow sustainably and efficiently without diluting what they set out to do, bridging entrepreneurship, ethics, and systems change.
Concentration in business management, with the Dean’s List Academic Award, plus master’s certificates in Strategic Management and in Principles of Corporate Finance.
November 2025
Georgia State Senate
Expert witness on recovery housing. Invited to testify on national best practices and regulatory frameworks for addiction recovery and housing policy.
October 2025
Superior Court of California, San Diego
Retained as an expert witness in litigation involving recovery residence operations, safety systems, and program design.
2020 – 2021
Harvard University
Teaching Fellow, graduate level: entrepreneurship, product development, and lean startup. Coached student teams from concept to market.
2018 – 2019
Hult International Business School
Teaching Fellow, undergraduate level: blockchain, technology, and business. Guided teams applying distributed ledger systems to real businesses.
2020 – Current
Vanderburgh Sober Living
Lead Instructor and Program Director for professional training: forming recovery home organizations, administration and accounting, regulatory compliance, and community impact.
Testimony
Invited to the table where the rules get written.
On November 21, 2025, Dr. Foote provided invited expert testimony before the Georgia Senate Study Committee on recovery residences. His experience across multiple states gave lawmakers insight into practices already proven in the field. He brought four recommendations:
Speaking and Engagements
Functional Food & Amaranth Resource Center, Kenya
Consulted with founder Dr. Mwangi on the feasibility of an agricultural training center outside Nairobi, including site visits and analysis.
Alómaestro, Ecuador
Consulted with founder Diego Quiñones on early-stage ideation for an auto parts import business in Quito.
Sisters of Providence
Consulted on group living feasibility in Holyoke, Massachusetts, including the revitalization of an existing facility.
Professional
Academic
Civic and Community
Questions
Dr. Hunter T. Foote is the founder and Executive Director of Vanderburgh Sober Living and the Vanderburgh Foundation, the author of more than one hundred published titles on recovery housing, and an advocate for people in recovery whose voices are rarely heard in housing policy.
More than one hundred published titles, including Recovery Housing Law & Practice, the Recovery Housing Real Estate series, Shared Living By Design, The Complete House Mentor Playbook, and the state-specific Opening Doors to Recovery Housing series, along with academic papers published through Salve Regina University.
A Ph.D. from Salve Regina University with dissertation research on social franchising, a master’s degree from Harvard University in business management, and a Bachelor of Business Administration summa cum laude from the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst. He has taught at Harvard University and Hult International Business School.
Yes. In November 2025 he provided invited expert testimony before the Georgia State Senate on addiction recovery and housing policy, and in October 2025 he was selected as an expert witness in the Superior Court of California, San Diego, in litigation involving recovery residence operations and program design. That testimony is scheduled for 2026.
A cooperative network of independently operated sober living homes organized by The Vanderburgh Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation based in Webster, Massachusetts. Under Dr. Foote’s leadership it has supported more than four hundred thirty-five recovery home operators and become the largest network of certified NARR Level II recovery residences in the country.
Next step
Whether you are opening a first home, already operating, or looking at recovery housing as an investment, tell us where you stand and we will point you to the right path.
Or call (844) 762-3747, weekdays 8a–5p.
Scholar. Author. Advocate.
Working at the intersection of faith, service, and mission.
Dr. Hunter T. Foote is the founder and Executive Director of Vanderburgh Sober Living and the Vanderburgh Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation based in Webster, Massachusetts.
