Written by For the first time we have seen in the sober living and halfway house community, a county has created an 18 member committee to oversee a number of other agencies who will enforce the reform on a house-by- house inspection basis.
When I read the headline I thought “Oh, boy. Here comes another round of NIMBY, but it’s being exercised by a county”. I thought they have somehow legalized a means of pushing houses out of a whole county and that this might lead to another round of going at it in the Federal Court system for sober livings to retain their rights to exist. But I’m happy to report I was wrong.
In fact, this is one of the few organized and systematic means I have seen proposed that will go about attempting to level their sights only at “rogue” houses, which pose a huge problem for the sober living industry. Every rogue house out there that breeds another story of a house getting busted for drug use or dealing and is a black eye for all of us. That negative reinforcement regarding the association of “sober livings” and the word “illegal” is something we could all do without.
But instead of going after all sober livings in a manner that is usually unreasonable or prejudicial, Suffolk County, which comprises most all of Long Island New York (think “Hamptons“) will be ferreting out the “bad” houses using negative reinforcement. In other words, “Good” houses will be rewarded by being rounded up in their own little sober living network that will give state funds to those houses that are being run well.
“Rogue” houses, on the other hand, will NOT be a part of this sober living Network, and nor will they get any state funds that most all of them are receiving now, making it less likely they will remain open. At least public money will not be dished out to bad houses any more under this new “surprise inspection” type of action.
We feel this really justifies the STARR Sober Living Network, which is not a small regional sober living network but a National Network that we believe will help ALL houses who are members be prepared for the day this kind of enforcement arrives in your county. Sober Living Search.com, the operators of this website, the world’s largest search site for sober livings and halfway houses, asks that Member Houses who join our site take the STARR Sober Living Network Pledge. Taking this pledge and adhering to it makes you known as a “Good” house in our search system, and identifies you as “safe” when counselors and guests are searching for a house.
Join our site for just $97 for a 6 month trial so you can see how many referrals you get, and what a good quality guest our referrals make. We are the #1 ranked sober living site in the country, and I believe that the STARR Sober Living Network will be a great way for people in the coming year to find only the “good” houses out there, as we have already ejected 22 houses for being “rogues”. Let everyone know you are a sober living or halfway house that obeys the rules and regulations. Join the best — and leave the rest to losers and users.
Just go to the green “Managers Join Here” tab at the URL soberlivingsearch.com and register your house, activate your account, and begin your personalized page with the name, address, and contact information for the house, click “Save Entry” at the bottom of the page, and pay your $97. If you want to appear at the top of the results list in one of our 26,000 house searches per month , insert code “321″ in the “rep code” area of the input page and pay $300 for 1 year of coming in 1st, 2nd or 3rd in every search (in your geographic area).
i am a legal services attorney. i feel this industry does need some regulation and oversight. Twice in the past month, sober living houses have evicted their residents whom they were collecting rent from and then not paying that rent to the owners of the houses. Residents of one house were being sexually abused and also forced to sign a power of atorney which allowed the sober living program to confiscate their wages and use them to “pay their rent and program Fees’ which were never paid.
Dear Chris:
Regarding your feelings that the sober living industry needs some sort of enforcement model, I think is right on the money. The trick is in finding a balance between those authorities and politicians who are staunchly opposed to sober housing, vs an agency or agencies who understand that it is usually the “good guys” who want to get better in recovery, and that indeed some scandals have set up houses solely as vehicles to collect rent. There are some unscrupulous predators who take advantage of people when they are at one of their weakest points, and they prey upon them. Having been in the business for many years, I have heard my fair share of horror stories. Luckily for every bad guy running a house, there are probably at least 20 or 30 honest people trying to help those in need. Suffolk County instigating a multi agency oversight group effort to catch the rogue houses makes more sense than anything else I have seen any county put together.