The relationship between current hopeful thinking about goals (“state hope”) and recovery from substance dependence was assessed among residents and graduates of a residential treatment program for substance dependent homeless veterans (N = 90). Contrary to predictions, residents and graduates did not differ in their level of state hope. As predicted, higher state hope was related to greater time abstinent and better quality of life, as well as greater self-efficacy, placing less emphasis on the advantages of substance use, and greater perceived social support. The association between state hope and quality of life remained when controlling for self-efficacy, the advantages of substance use, and social support. However, state hope was no longer associated with time abstinent when controlling for these same variables. As predicted, current hopeful thinking was correlated with a greater number of recovery-related variables for residents than for graduates of the treatment program. Implications and limitations of results are discussed.