Sunshine Sober Living runs a family-owned structured sober living residence at 5650 Donna Avenue in Tarzana, roughly six and a half miles west of Sherman Oaks on US-101. The house is open to men and women aged 21 and older who want a substance-free address while they work, study and attend meetings. Call 866-216-9789.
Sherman Oaks holds the 101/405 interchange inside its own boundaries, which makes it the most connected corner of the San Fernando Valley and, most afternoons, the most congested one. The run west to Donna Avenue takes twelve to eighteen minutes in ordinary traffic, and the route over from Sherman Oaks is a single freeway and three turns.
Sunshine has served the recovery community since 2019 as a family business. Residents keep their outpatient appointments, their therapists and their jobs while they live under house rules. Read men’s sober living in Sherman Oaks or the women’s side of the house for how each side of the program is arranged.
Sherman Oaks United Methodist Church at 14401 Dickens Street carries five AA meetings a week, so a resident can keep a Sherman Oaks home group while living on Donna Avenue in Tarzana.
Sober living is housing with rules, not medical treatment. A resident rents a room in a substance-free home, agrees to a curfew, tests when asked, takes a chore on the rotation, and leaves each morning for work, class or outpatient care. Sunshine Sober Living accepts adults 21 and older, including people managing depression, anxiety or trauma alongside a substance use disorder. What the house asks for is honesty and a willingness to be accountable to the people sharing the kitchen.
SAMHSA describes recovery as a process of change supported by four dimensions: health, home, purpose and community. Home is named outright, which matches what most people discover once treatment ends. The clinical work can be excellent and still come apart if a person walks back into the bedroom where they used. Choosing recovery housing near Sherman Oaks is often the decision that holds the rest of the plan together.
The house tends to suit people in a few clear situations:
Most families searching for sober living in Sherman Oaks end up looking a few miles west, and the reason is distance. Sherman Oaks and Tarzana share US-101 and the same long commercial boulevard, so nothing about the Valley becomes unfamiliar, but the blocks a person used in are six and a half miles behind them. Donna Avenue sits north of Burbank Boulevard between Wilbur Avenue and Vanalden Avenue, two blocks from Tarzana Recreation Center, on a flat grid of single-storey houses and mature street trees.
Proximity keeps commitments intact at the same time. Residents drive back east for a shift, for a session with a therapist they already trust, or for a home group they have no intention of leaving. The page on structured transitional living for Sherman Oaks covers that hand-off between treatment and independence in more detail.
Mornings start early. Beds are made, breakfast is shared, and residents leave for work or class. Chores rotate weekly on a posted schedule rather than being negotiated in the moment. Evenings hold a house meeting, meetings outside the house, and a curfew everyone knows. Drug and alcohol testing happens on a random basis. None of it is punishment; it is the scaffolding that keeps a day from drifting, which is the argument for a house with a posted schedule over a spare room at a friend’s place.
Weekends look different without being empty. Residents cook, do laundry, get to a Saturday meeting and start finding out what free time feels like sober. Elliot Leonard, the program director, brings professional addiction-treatment experience to how the week is built, and Richard and Wendy Goldberg are present in the running of the house rather than names on a brochure.
The Los Angeles Central Office lists Sherman Oaks United Methodist Church at 14401 Dickens Street as the venue for five AA meetings a week, among them a speaker meeting. One address, five chances, which means a resident can hold on to a Sherman Oaks home group after moving to Tarzana. Metro Lines 150 and 240 run the Ventura Boulevard corridor from Warner Center through Sherman Oaks to Universal City for anyone without a car.
Work and school stay reachable too. The Ventura Boulevard professional corridor runs east to west through both neighbourhoods, and the Sherman Oaks Galleria office complex sits at Sepulveda Boulevard, so a job does not have to end because an address changed. Keeping employment through the first months is one of the quieter arguments for staying well past the first ninety days.
Sunshine is recovery housing. It is not a detox, a rehab, a hospital or an intensive outpatient program, and it does not pretend otherwise. Wendy Goldberg, Founder and Director of Admissions, works with licensed California treatment facilities and Joint Commission-accredited providers, and can arrange a referral for medically supervised withdrawal or intensive outpatient care when that is the level of support a person actually needs.
Insurance is worth checking early rather than late. Verification runs through the site’s insurance verification page, and nobody here will tell a family that coverage is certain before a payer says so. Residents arriving from Sherman Oaks often have an outpatient program already in place, and the house schedule is built to protect those appointments rather than compete with them.
The honest answer is usually earlier than it feels. People wait for a sign that never arrives, and the gap between discharge day and a stable address is exactly where plans fall apart. Anyone weighing sober living near Sherman Oaks against a return to the family home should count those days honestly. If a bed is available and the alternative is a couch, the timing is right. For anyone not yet in treatment at all, SAMHSA’s National Helpline on 1-800-662-HELP is free, confidential and answered around the clock in English and Spanish, and admissions at Sunshine will talk through options without asking for a commitment.
Sober living is one rung on a ladder that begins with medical care.
| Level of care | What it provides | How Sunshine fits |
|---|---|---|
| Medically supervised detox | Short-term medical management of withdrawal | Referral only; this is not a detox |
| Residential rehabilitation | Live-in clinical treatment with daily therapy | Referral to licensed residential rehabilitation |
| Intensive outpatient | Structured therapy several days a week, living off site | Residents commonly attend while living here |
| Structured sober living | A substance-free home, house rules, peer accountability | This is what Sunshine provides |
Sunshine Sober Living is recovery housing and refers residents to licensed providers for every clinical level above it.
From Ventura Boulevard at Van Nuys Boulevard, take Van Nuys Boulevard north to US-101 west, run past Encino and exit at Exit 23 (Reseda Boulevard), north on Reseda Boulevard to Burbank Boulevard, west on Burbank Boulevard, then north on Donna Avenue. Exiting at Tampa Avenue instead is an equivalent alternative. That is about 6.5 miles, roughly 12-18 minutes in normal traffic.
Sunshine Sober LivingNo. Rehab is licensed clinical treatment with therapy, medical oversight and a structured program of care. Sober living is housing: a substance-free home with rules, testing, chores and peer accountability, where residents come and go for work, school and outpatient appointments. Sunshine Sober Living in Tarzana provides the housing and refers residents to licensed California facilities when clinical treatment is what is needed.
Yes, and most residents do. The daily schedule is built around work rather than against it, with chores, meetings and curfew arranged so shifts stay intact. The drive back east on US-101 takes twelve to eighteen minutes in normal traffic, which puts the Ventura Boulevard corridor and the Sherman Oaks Galleria office complex within an easy commute of the house.
Sunshine accepts men and women aged 21 and older, including people with co-occurring mental health conditions who are committed to long-term recovery. Admissions will explain how rooms and shared space are arranged before anyone moves in. The men’s and women’s pages for this area describe how the program is shaped around each group, from meeting choices to work and family obligations.
Residents are expected to build and keep an outside recovery schedule, and 12-step meetings are the most widely available option in the central San Fernando Valley. A home group, a sponsor and a regular commitment carry more weight than random attendance. Residents who use another recovery pathway can discuss that with the program director when they come in for an assessment.
Stays are measured in months rather than weeks. Someone leaving residential treatment often plans on the first ninety days and then extends once work, savings and a meeting schedule are established. The decision to leave is made with the program director rather than on a difficult evening, and the aim is always a planned move into somewhere stable rather than a sudden one.
What we run is recovery housing: a substance-free address with rules, accountability and peer support. Clinical treatment belongs with licensed providers, and admissions can arrange that referral. Nobody, including us, can guarantee how any individual recovery will go. If you or someone you love needs immediate help, the SAMHSA National Helpline is free and confidential on 1-800-662-4357, 24 hours a day.
If someone in your family is leaving treatment and needs an address that will hold, comparing sober living near Sherman Oaks is a short conversation to start. Admissions answers on 866-216-9789, and you can also reach the team through the contact page to schedule a confidential assessment. Sunshine Sober Living is rated 4.7 out of 5 by local reviewers, and the house is a straight run west of Sherman Oaks.