About a year after Cledy’s House of Hope opened in Rock Falls, it’s in need of community support or it could be forced to close, according to its leadership team.

“This means so much to me. I don’t want to lose this,” Cledy’s House of Hope Chief Operating Officer Lauren Metzler said about the 42-bed women’s sober living home at 430 Martin Road.

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Lauren Metzler is a co-founder of Cledy's House of Hope, a women's sober living facility in Rock Falls. (Alex T. Paschal)

The facility functions as a halfway point for women who are in recovery and want to stay sober. They’re provided a recovery coach who explains the level system for the program and creates a plan with them outlining what their goals are for the next three months, six months and so on, Metzler said.

The coach helps them to build the needed life skills to “be able to live on their own,” Metzler said.

Cledy’s House of Hope opened in early 2025 after Highlight Healthcare donated the building to Sauk Valley Voices of Recovery.

“The idea is to try and get them as strong as possible and going in the right direction,” SVVOR Executive Director Gerald Lott said of the home’s goal to help women, adding that the facility is experiencing financial struggles.

“If we continue in the manner that we’re going right now to the end of this year, we would have to close,” he said.

The home was founded in honor of Metzler’s mom, Cledy Rumley, who died in August 2024 as the result of fentanyl poisoning. Metzler’s younger brother also died of fentanyl poisoning in 2020; to honor him, Metzler created a nonprofit organization called Tevin’s Tribe.

“When my mom passed,” Metzler said, “I literally felt like my mom’s voice, ‘What are you gonna do for me?’”

She said Lott had the idea to create Cledy’s House of Hope.

Metzler said Lott “brought it to my attention to be like ‘Why do we not make this a home to honor your mom? She’s born and raised here. She’s known in the community and it’s something that’s really needed here.’”

Metzler and Lott “paired together to make this happen,” she said, adding Lott did most of the construction and she focused on the interior design, choosing colors and patterns that her mom would’ve liked. The home has 21 fully furnished rooms, a communal kitchen, laundry room and gathering space.

On the financial side of things, SVVOR took out a loan on the building for the renovations and stays afloat with the dues paid by residents.

“We don’t have a grant and this is something a lot of people don’t understand,” Metzler said.

A majority of the grants available for sober living facilities require the organization that owns it to have certain clinical licenses. As a nonprofit organization rooted in building community for those in recovery, SVVOR doesn’t meet those requirements, Metzler said.

When Cledy’s first opened, things were going well and at one point had 17 women living there, but things went downhill last fall, Metzler said.

She said some women in the home were not staying sober and were offered assistance in getting treatment, but a majority of them declined. Now, in March 2026, there’s about five women living at the home, Metzler said.

“We’ve learned from our mistakes,” Metzler said.

“We’re not just taking people in because they’re willing to pay the money. They have to be willing to do the program and be capable of doing the program,” Lott said.

Metzler said they’re looking for support, whether that be financial, people spreading the word that the facility accepts women from anywhere or volunteers who would want to come in and work with the women.

“Another thing our women face an issue [with] is getting a job,” Metzler said.

“Unfortunately, it’s kind of remote,” Lott said, referring to the location of the sober home. He explained that’s a barrier for women at the home who don’t have a car and aren’t about to drive to work even if they do find a job.

“We’re finding that the women that have moved in there are sometimes getting a little stranded and so then it becomes hard to build your life up,” Lott said.

Cledy’s is looking for businesses in the Sauk Valley area that would be “open to hiring women that are living in the home, in recovery and trying to do better and be better,” Metzler said.

For information, call 779-707-0151​, email info@svvor.org or visit its website at svvor.org.