3 Types of Sober Living Home Residents You Need to Stop Admitting

Is your sober living home in a state of constant chaos?

Is resident turnover off the charts?

Are you getting frequent visits from police and emergency services?

Are your sober living home managers burned out?

If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, it might be time to take a second look at how you are screening your new residents.

Are you accepting anyone and everyone who expresses any interest in living at your sober living home or are you doing your due diligence when working through the admissions process?

Today, we’ll dive into the top 3 types of sober living home residents you need to stop admitting into your sober living home ASAP.

Sober Living Resident #1: The Earnest Guy Who Doesn’t Have Move-In Costs

Your sober living home collects the first two weeks of rent upfront before you allow new residents to move-in — right?

May sober living homes strive to do this but often end up bending the rules for desperate would-be residents with a good story. Occasionally skirting the rules makes sense in extraordinary circumstances, but most of the time, you will regret that decision.

If your newest admission can’t pay you now — how will they pay you later? Moreover, why would they start paying now that you’ve already shown them you’re comfortable with accepting $0 for rent?

Sober Living Resident #2: The Gal Who Wants to Live at Her Boyfriend’s House Part-Time

Sober living homes are a community of people who want to get sober together. You have to be present at the home in order to reap the benefits of the model and contribute to the sober living home’s community responsibly.

When residents want to live at your sober living home part-time, they are signaling that they want to “do this recovery thing” part-time. That simply does not work.

It’s always a good idea to require residents to live on-site at least 5 days a week. Your sober living home resident agreements should state this in no uncertain terms and your sober living home manager should be sure to stick to this rule.

Any less and you risk engaging unmotivated residents at high-risk for relapse. That translates into more drama, costs and turnover for you.

It’s not worth it.

Sober Living Resident #3: The Maverick Who Resists Your Paperwork

Your application process should be simple.

(If it’s not - check out Sober Living App’s cloud-based new resident application. Residents can complete it on their phone in a few minutes.)

Unless your would-be resident struggles with English as a second language or a reading disability, they should be able to sit down for a few minutes and complete the application.

Ditto for would-be residents who might lack access to a phone — unless there’s a technology barrier, the application should be completed if the resident is serious about sober living.

Barring these legitimate reasons for failing to complete the application, there’s no reason a would-be resident should need excessive hand-holding to complete their application.

In fact, you should use your application as a way to screen out would-be residents who refuse to follow directions or who think that the rules don’t apply to them. If they expect you to fill out the application for them, this also tells you that you may be dealing with a resident who isn’t willing to take responsibility for basic tasks in the future.

No application, no admission. It’s that simple. If they can’t follow rules now, imagine how they’ll do a few months into their residency.

We’ve Got Your Sober Living Home’s Back

At Sober Living App, we’re passionate about making your sober living home run as smoothly (and as profitably) as possible.

That’s why we’ve created our intuitive, cloud-based tools especially for sober living home operators and made them available to the sober living community at ridiculously affordable prices.

Claim your free trial today and see why more sober living homes prefer the Sober Living App.