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On 6th Street in Hollister, between Monterey and San Benito, there is a brilliantly colored two-story building where miracles in substance abuse recovery have been happening since 2018.
It’s the home of Sun Street Centers’ Women’s Residential and Perinatal program, a 14-bed treatment facility that housed 74 clients in 2025 and achieved a strong 74% program completion rate. In that year, 97% of the residents reported improvements in their mental health.
According to the Director of Recovery Services Chris Graveline, that success is due in large part to the use of a social model concept of recovery, essentially one addict or alcoholic helping another.
“The group is to whom they become accountable,” he said. “It’s much more peer-driven in that manner, with the group kind of helping them through different parts of the process. They’re doing this together with each other”
Sun Street Centers was founded in 1968, when Martin and Nancy Dodd refurbished an old labor camp in Salinas and began offering residential recovery services for men.
Including the program in Hollister, Sun Street has grown to 14 facilities in San Luis Obispo, King City, Soledad, Seaside, Marina and Salinas, offering a wide range of residential and outpatient services, including sobering centers, transitional living, counseling, education and prevention.
In the 2024-25 fiscal year, 57% of residents were between 25 and 44 years old, the highest percentage in recent years. Residents between 45 and 64 made up 36%, with roughly even splits between the 18-24 and 65+ age groups.
Graveline said referrals to the program are primarily assessed and routed through the San Benito and San Luis Obispo County behavioral health departments, then sorted into the various treatment programs.
“What we look at is where the person is, as far as how their life is going,” Graveline said, “People that come into residential treatment are not functioning on a day-to-day basis, not in a way that is conducive to longevity.”
As defined by the DSM-5, people referred to the program have to fall within the 11 criteria for substance use disorders; those exhibiting six or more symptoms are considered severe cases:
Impaired control
- Using the substance in larger amounts or for longer than intended
- Wanting to cut down or stop using, but being unable to do so
- Spending a large amount of time getting, using, or recovering from the substance
- Cravings or intense urges to use the substance
Social impairment
- Failing to fulfill major obligations at work, school, or home due to use
- Continuing to use despite social problems caused by the substance
- Giving up or reducing important social, occupational, or recreational activities
Risky use
- Repeatedly using the substance in physically hazardous situations, like driving
- Continuing use knowing it causes or worsens physical or psychological problems
Pharmacological indicators
- Tolerance: Needing larger amounts to get the desired effect
- Withdrawal: Experiencing physical or psychological symptoms when stopping use
In the last year, 47% of the residents suffered from the abuse of stimulants, such as methamphetamine, followed by alcohol (35%) and opioids (17%).
The percentages change year to year. In 2023-24, alcohol was the highest abused substance at 37%, with stimulants following at 33%, and opioids at 30%.
Once residents are admitted, they undergo an initial 72-hour observation period during which staff monitor their vital signs and well-being every 30 minutes.
“You have to physically see them,” Graveline said. “Even if they’re in bed, you have to go make sure that they’re sleeping and breathing.”
From there, residents are introduced to a strict routine designed to reset their daily habits into a predictable, healthier pattern: wake up, shower, brush teeth, get dressed, eat breakfast and straighten up their living area.
“If you’ve ever known anybody who struggles with addiction, they spend a lot of time awake, or they’ll be up in the middle of the night a lot,” Graveline said. “They keep very odd hours, and we’re trying to help them reset that rhythm.”
While the routine is being created, residents participate in group therapy sessions designed to help them process their thoughts and emotions and then start planning how to continue their lives.
“The changes they are experiencing, the other people around them have experienced it or are experiencing it, too,” Graveline said. “It’s the idea that I can look at you and you’ll look at me and we know that we are both still okay and things are going to be alright.”
As a recovering addict, Sun Street certified counselor Danae Hughbanks knows both sides of the treatment facility. Seven years ago, she was remanded to the center from jail, following a three-month “drying out” period from methamphetamine and alcohol.
“I did a lot of healing here.” she said. “I learned a lot about myself and why I was numbing everything. I learned coping skills, how to set boundaries with people and how to address my past traumas through therapy and reaching out for help.”
Hughbanks said the first week was a difficult adjustment period and, though she did not speak much in the group sessions because she was uncertain about what to say, she absorbed what she heard from the others.
“I thought I would be judged, even though that wasn’t the vibe I was getting,” She said. “But when I actually started listening, if somebody was saying something that I thought was a good piece of advice, it stuck in my head.”
Hughbanks said her breakthrough moment came a few weeks into her stay, during one of her walks to a nearby gas station to buy some cigarettes. There, she was confronted by shelves filled with liquor bottles, and she discovered that alcohol’s appeal to her had vanished.
“All that alcohol was in front of my face,” she said, “and knowing that I wanted nothing to do with it anymore was an ‘a-ha’ moment for me. Knowing I could be around it, and even though I had money in my hand, I was buying cigarettes, not alcohol. That was a good moment for me.”
Graveline said the staff monitors residents for just this kind of moment, watching how they present themselves and make decisions. For many, the change in behavior becomes noticeable within the first four to six weeks.
“You can call it a paradigm shift,” he said. “At a certain point in the process of recovery, you have to find a shift in your thinking, a shift in your center, to allow for change to start to take place. Moving away from the past behavior is very much a growth process.”
Graveline compares the shift to teaching a child to ride a bike, when they are able to ride without help, and you try not to let them know, because as soon as they realize it, they might become self-conscious and wobble.
“We try to get them to that point,” he said, “and then we have to let go of them and see if they’re going to make it or not.”
Beyond the internal change, Graveline said the shift is evident as residents start thriving again, reconnecting with their families and feeling they are part of the community once more.
The ideal is that by the time a planned discharge comes up, the resident has stabilized their physical and mental health, is able to advocate on their own behalf, regulate their emotions, and make the behavioral changes needed to accomplish what they want, according to Graveline.
“At that point,” he said, “they’ve also been connected with the community resources they’ll need, whether that’s employment, health services, education, housing, or anything else. So we’re giving them the best possible chance to successfully take that next step.”
Those 90 days might be the biggest challenge some of the residents ever face in their lives, Hughbanks said, but the key is not to get discouraged.
“Don’t leave before the miracle happens,” she said.
335 6th St, Hollister, 95023
(831) 265-7317
Resource links
Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (988) information
Key Differences Between 988 & 911 (emergency)
How to Use Narcan (naloxone) Nasal Spray
California Association of DUI Treatment Programs
California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals
California Department of Healthcare Services
Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities
DrugRehab.com Advanced Recovery Systems
Make The Connection (for veterans)
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
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