diff --git a/roles/rabbitmq_cluster/templates/rabbitmq-env.conf b/roles/rabbitmq_cluster/templates/rabbitmq-env.conf
index f031bf4db0..0191928185 100644
--- a/roles/rabbitmq_cluster/templates/rabbitmq-env.conf
+++ b/roles/rabbitmq_cluster/templates/rabbitmq-env.conf
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+{% if ansible_distribution_major_version|int >= 9 and ansible_distribution == 'RedHat' %}
+#  Not obvious why this is now needed with el9, but we go out of our
+# way to remove the user and el9 fails to start because of SELinux
+# access problems on /home/fedora/rabbitmq/.erlang.cookie (which
+# doesn't exit, but even if it does and contains the cookie SELinux
+# fails).
+HOME=/var/lib/rabbitmq
+{% endif %}
+
 NODENAME="rabbit"
 USE_LONGNAME="true"