Roof Above’s 19-year substance use treatment program will end, CEO announces
A local nonprofit’s longtime substance use treatment program for men will end, its CEO told supporters in an email Thursday.
Roof Above’s SABER program started in 2006, CEO Liz Clasen-Kelly wrote, but “financial and operational challenges” will force its closure after this August. The program’s housing will become “permanent, affordable, substance-free housing for men committed to their recovery journey,” she wrote.
Roof Above works to end homelessness in the Charlotte area and connect people to resources. SABER starts with three months of treatment and is followed by six months of continued care, according to Roof Above’s website. Participants stay in rent-free housing so long as they agree to abstinence.
“The decision to close SABER is not an easy one,” Clasen-Kelly wrote.
SABER has been a successful program, according to data collected by the nonprofit.
That data says that more than 90% of participants got through the program’s first eight weeks successfully from 2006 to 2021. Fifty-four percent got through the full nine months. Of those who got through all nine months, 95% found a job.
More than 700 people participated in the program in those years, according to the data.
People already in the program will be able to continue through the end of August, according to Clasen-Kelly’s email.
In May, Clasen-Kelly told The Charlotte Observer that federal funding cuts were affecting the nonprofit. At the time, she said Federal Emergency Management Agency funds for an emergency shelter were “kind of paused indefinitely.” She also worried about the nonprofit’s Continuum of Care program, which provides housing subsidies to young adults who are otherwise experiencing homelessness.
This story was originally published July 24, 2025 at 4:08 PM.