diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f4fbde3a..0c040f70 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ When adding a new entry, please use the following format:
 
 ## Log
 
+- [2026-04-01] fix: set explicit home directory for app user to resolve Gunicorn and worker permission issues [#742](https://github.com/jlab-sensing/ENTS-backend/pull/742)
 - [2026-03-30] fix: added test decorators to resolve lack of "TTN_API_KEY" on fork PR's. removed k6 from github actions. changed github action to utilize env-import.py as opposeed to directly accessing s3 bucket for env variables. [#736] (https://github.com/jlab-sensing/ENTS-backend/pull/736)
 - [2026-03-23] fix: increase fallback SECRET_KEY length to resolve PyJWT InsecureKeyLengthWarning [#682](https://github.com/jlab-sensing/ENTS-backend/pull/682)
 - [2026-03-12] fix: safely catch PyJWT DecodeErrors and remove log spam for invalid tokens [#683](https://github.com/jlab-sensing/ENTS-backend/pull/683)
diff --git a/backend/Dockerfile b/backend/Dockerfile
index fe5526cb..b6cd72ce 100644
--- a/backend/Dockerfile
+++ b/backend/Dockerfile
@@ -38,9 +38,11 @@ RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r /tmp/requirements.txt
 #RUN pip wheel --no-cache-dir --no-deps --wheel-dir /usr/src/app/wheels -r requirements.txt
 
 # create new user and group to run the app with name "app"
-RUN adduser --system --group app
+# Give the user an explicit home directory OUTSIDE the mounted volume
+RUN adduser --system --group --home /home/app app
+ENV HOME=/home/app
 USER app
-WORKDIR $HOME
+WORKDIR /app
 
 # copy files from source tree
 COPY . .