“Those were the people that taught me how to love, how to serve others.”

Jason Gonzalez is the Founder and CEO of 4th Dimension Sobriety, a sober living house in Milwaukee.  He started the business with $500 and a dream, taking on the roles of house manager, admissions officer, and accountant for the business. With the help of his community, he has managed to grow the business and develop a safe space for people seeking to better themselves. He has been in recovery for 16 years now and has a passion for helping people overcome the challenges of addiction and chronic homelessness.

Peyton Bell: Can you tell me more about the history of the building and how it came to be?

Jason Gonzalez: It started out as a home street bank, and they turned it into a school which shut down shortly after. It was vacant for 13 years until fifty investors got together from the neighborhood and donated thousands of dollars in the direction of this well-known developer, Juli Kaufmann. She had this building and wanted to turn it into Milwaukee’s first traveling hostel, which is a cheap lodging for travelers passing through. That opened up in 2020 and closed right away. I am assuming it was because of the pandemic. We opened up 4^th Dimension Sobriety in 2021.

Peyton Bell: Where does your love for sober living come from? 

Jason Gonzalez: Right down the block on Center Street, there’s a recovery meeting and by this time I’m a teacher and I’m drinking and using every day. I decided to give it a shot and I met a bunch of people in recovery. Those were the people that taught me how to love, how to serve others and practice principles in everything that I do. Five years later after following the program, I remained sober. I had $500 in my bank account, took that money, bought some beds to put inside my house and invited two guys who were recovering from drugs and alcohol to come stay with me. At one point, we had 14 dudes living in one Riverwest house, all grinding and trying to stay sober. That group of guys opened up a women’s home, years later we opened up a treatment center, and then at the height of Covid, we got into the building that we are in now.  

Peyton Bell: How do people get in touch with the business? Do people apply to live here? 

Jason Gonzalez: People call from all over and we will get them on our waitlist. All the treatment centers refer to us, but I think our biggest referral source is the people in the recovery community because we started this as a bunch of AA guys and they trust us. 

Peyton Bell: Are there certain conditions or limitations to living in a place like this?

Jason Gonzalez: The County covers the building. Most people around here are under the poverty line. They cannot really afford anything else, so they come here. We do have two residential homes that operate like that where there is strict guidelines as to what you can and cannot do.  There is a fee for service that is connected to it and that is because it is connected to our treatment center. 

Peyton Bell: What is the significance of this alter in the front yard? 

Jason Gonzalez: In Mexican culture, when somebody dies, an alter gets made in honor of them and every year on November 1 there is a celebration and you create a living space for people to remember them. One year, we decided to have this concert in the front called “Fight the Stigma” and it was put together by this guy Joey Jonas, who is literally the poster child for UWM’s social work program. He did so many amazing stuff. He was going to put on this concert for the recovery community because he was also a very talented musician and a week before the event was meant to take place, we found out he overdosed and died. That is why his picture is on display here. It’s really just to show people what’s at stake for people like us.”