Written by 
No STARR for this house
Houses that get an “AVOID” rating from us are houses that you would never find in the STARR Sober Living Network or listed on our site SOBER LIVING HALFWAY HOUSE SEARCH at soberlivingsearch.com. In an AVOID situation, which is rare for us to post publicly, we have confirmed that multiple problems exist for a potential resident. This is what we call in the business a “rogue” house or a bad house where it poses a danger to residents trying to get sober and stay sober to the degree we feel a moral obligation to call attention to the situation. All too often with this type of house it is ONLY about getting the rent from people, regularly violating the general rules of a “good” sober living and one or more of the following conditions exist:
1) People in house are using — Manager has lost control of the “sober” part of “sober living”
2) House is in deplorable conditions, which includes being filthy to the point of cockroaches and vermin on the premises
3) “Stuffing” where more than 4 people to a room is unacceptable, usually in bunk-bed fashion, and the room is crowded and not conducive to a house where one is supposed to be able to focus on his or her sobriety
4) Drinking, drug use , and even drug dealing are going on in this house. It is among the worst of the worst and should be shut down.
5) Theft has been reported to occur in this house on a regular basis. This house is not screening residents properly and the house is out of control.
5) STARR is an acronym for Sobriety, Trust, And Recovery Reputation. This house violates at least THREE of the STARR Sober Living Network principles.
By using our site to find a house, we would like to think this type of house could never end up on our recommended list. One of the principal ideas behind Sober Living Halfway House Search is that a house has made the STARR pledge, publicly published on the lower part of page 1 of our website. This means that the house is not afraid to be held to the conditions that are contained in the pledge, as it could mean there are consequences for those houses that flagrantly do not follow said pledge.
In this case we have come across a house where our sense is that any resident joining this house would literally be stepping into a dangerous situation and immediately have his or her sobriety in an “at risk” condition. Manager/owners are welcome to contact us to challenge our call, but that doesn’t mean we will withdraw it until the house has been reorganized in terms of management and the way it is being run. We have documented the charges in a case like this and would be ready to defend same in a court of law.
