Based on experience in the US and other countries, Soteria style community houses cost about a fifth of traditional psychiatric hospital wards. This is possible because most costs are for staffing and Soteria houses are run by experienced lay people, often with their own lived mental health experience. They are based on the idea that people experiencing psychosis will be subject to less trauma than traditional medical treatment in a supportive peer-to-peer family style environment that is part of a local community.