Amy Winehouse Foundation Opens Home for Recovering Female Addicts

The Amy Winehouse Foundation has teamed up with a housing provider to open a home for recovering female addicts, as family, friends, and fans mourn the fifth anniversary of the late singer's death.

The Guardianreports that the recovery house, known as Amy's Place, opens today in east London, to help recovering female addicts reintegrate into society following rehabilitation. It is much larger than the only other women-only recovery house in London, being able to house up to 16 women.

Dominic Ruffy, the special project director of the Amy Winehouse Foundation, told The Guardian how important it is to provide a space like Amy's Place for recovering addicts.

Picture a person who is 14 years old, has come from a broken home, hasn't engaged at school, ends on a path of addiction and winds up at 25-26 years old going to rehab, learning how to get clean, and then leaving rehab and being told to get on with it. It can be as simple as not knowing how to go about getting your benefits or engaging in college. Our experience shows if you give people an extended period of time post-traditional rehabilitation treatment, you will improve the percentage of people who stay clean [in the] long term. We have a saying in recovery that the drink and drugs aren't our problem, it's living life clean and sober.

The Amy Winehouse Foundation was set up by Winehouse's family following her death at 27 in July 2011.