New resident agreements are the first tool towards creating a harmonious, well-run sober living home.

A successful sober living home tenant relationship begins with a clear and concise new resident agreement.

You’re probably already including rules around staying sober, finding work and/or volunteer positions, limiting visits, and attending recovery meetings.

While these areas make up the core of your new resident agreement, there’s a few key components to new resident agreements that are frequently missing.

Too often, sober living home operators and managers don’t realize how important these elements are until it’s too late. It’s much more difficult to run an orderly sober living home when resident agreements leave portions of the tenant-sober living home relationship up to interpretation.

Today we’ll look at some of the most overlooked components of new resident agreements for sober living homes.

Sober Living Home Statement of Resident Rights

Instead of just including rules, consider including resident rights, too. Your sober living home will function better when everyone understands that the rules are there to benefit them and assure that their freedom to pursue recovery is respected.

Your residential agreement includes a lot of rules, but does it include a statement of rights for residents? These rights can include things like:

The right to enjoy a clean, orderly, sober environment
The right to fair and equal treatment
The right to experience and learn from consequences of behaviors

These rights frame the “do’s and dont’s” of sober living in affirming, resident-centered terms that reinforce a sense of self in recovery and encourage an internal locus of control.

Grievance Policy

There will be disagreements and other interpersonal problems at your sober living home. How will you deal with it?

What happens when significant disagreements arise between residents at your sober living home? Your new resident agreement should lay out the specific process that each grievance should follow so there are no surprises.

Non-discrimination Policy

While the rules governing non-discrimination policies will vary state-by-state, these policies are important to include in your new resident agreements.

Check with your legal team to see what would be appropriate to include for your location.

Emergency Procedure

Your new resident agreement should include guidelines around emergency response. Have residents agree to them in advance.

What happens during emergency situations at your sober living home?

This procedure should be brief and easy to follow in the event of an actual emergency. It should outline the “chain of command” at your sober living home should the usual manager be incapacitated or absent in some way.

Probationary Period

While not all sober living homes enforce a probationary period on residents, the idea is catching on more and more in the recovery community as a helpful way to transition into sober living after treatment. Probationary periods can be 30, 60, or 90 days long and include enhanced restrictions on visits, relationships, and meeting attendance.

Often, new residents’ probationary period require:

No romantic relationships during the probation period
Significant increase in meeting attendance (ex: “90 in 90” - 90 recovery meetings in 90 days)
No off-site overnights
No off-site trips without supervision of staff or resident who is not on probation

Lockdown Provision

Let new residents know about your lockdown procedure in advance so they aren’t surprised if they need to go into lockdown.

A lockdown provision serves to essentially “ground” all residents of your facility. During lockdowns, all residents must stay on-site except for work shifts. Sometimes lock downs may include bans on television, radio, and phone.

Lockdowns are designed to address unusual circumstances where all residents need to stay on-site for a certain period of time. Lockdowns can be helpful during situations where extended fact-finding needs to occur (ex: drugs are found on-site but the responsible party is not obvious) or when natural disasters, pandemics, or other house emergencies require limits on the physical movement of residents.

Should it Go in the New Resident Agreement or in the Resident Handbook?

Deciding where to include all of these provisions - in your new resident agreement or your resident handbook - takes a little consideration and careful planning.

In some cases, it may make sense to make brief mention of these provisions in your new resident agreement and include a more extended explanation in your resident handbook. New resident agreements should be thorough but they can never contain as much information as your resident handbook. Regardless of where you include these provisions, make sure your resident has read, understood, and signed their name to any rules you intend to enforce at your sober living home.

Here's What You Need To Start Including in Your Sober Living Home Resident Agreements