By Recovery Unplugged. Updated September 2026.
Treatment ends on a Friday. The paperwork gets signed, someone hands you a folder of aftercare printouts, and by Saturday you are standing in a sober living home you toured for twenty minutes, if you toured it at all. For most people leaving treatment in New Jersey, where they sleep next got less thought than any other part of the plan.
Sober living in NJ is somewhere to live, not treatment, and houses run from genuinely good to actively predatory. A good one gives you a stable, substance-free address, housemates who are also in recovery, and house rules that keep drugs and alcohol out during the first shaky months; the benefits of sober living come from that stability, not from therapy. The nine questions cover certification, written rules, what happens if someone uses, referral kickbacks, medication for opioid use disorder, medication storage, visits, overnight contact, and what’s expected of you. Pay as much attention to how a place answers as to what it says.
What a sober living house actually is
A sober living house is a shared, substance-free home where people in recovery live while they work, study, or go to outpatient treatment. Most have no doctors, no group therapy, and no clinical program built into the rent. It is also not a halfway house in the criminal-justice sense, where a stay is court-ordered; sober living is usually voluntary.
Houses also differ in how much staff they have. Guidance from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) organizes recovery housing into four levels, drawn from the National Alliance for Recovery Residences. Level 1 homes are peer-run with no paid staff. Level 2 adds a house manager, often a resident. Level 3 adds paid staff and structured peer support. Only Level 4 has clinical services on site. A level describes staffing and says nothing about quality, but it lets you compare two places that both call themselves sober living.
The nine questions to ask before you move in
1. Are you certified, and by whom?
A good answer names a certifier you can check. In New Jersey, recovery residences can get certified through the Garden State Alliance of Recovery Residences (GSARR), the state’s affiliate of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences. Separately, the state Department of Community Affairs licenses cooperative sober living residences under its rooming and boarding house rules, N.J.A.C. 5:27, so ask whether the house holds that license too. Certification does not guarantee a good experience. If the operator won’t name a certifier or show you a license, move on to the next house.
2. Can I see the house rules in writing, before I move in?
You should be able to, because SAMHSA’s recovery housing guidance says homes should have clear, written policies and resident expectations. Ask for the resident agreement, fee schedule, and return-to-use policy. If a manager can’t produce them before move-in day, expect the same vagueness when a rent dispute or an eviction comes up later.
3. What happens if someone uses?
A good house has a plan: someone sits down with the resident, and if needed helps them get into detox or a more intensive program, then talks about whether they can come back. A bad one puts your bags on the sidewalk that night, the same night you most need a safe bed.
4. Is there money changing hands behind your referrals?
There shouldn’t be. Paying or taking money for referrals can be a federal crime. Getting paid to steer residents to a program, lab, or provider is called patient brokering, and the federal Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act makes paying or receiving kickbacks for referrals to recovery homes, treatment facilities, or labs a crime under 18 U.S.C. ยง 220. Be wary if a house requires you to attend one particular program, or offers free rent if you sign up with one.
5. Is medication allowed, including medication for opioid use disorder?
It should be. Some houses ban buprenorphine, methadone, or naltrexone, but SAMHSA says recovery housing operators should not have barriers or restrictions on residents using prescribed medications, including the FDA-approved medications for opioid and alcohol use disorders. If a home has a blanket ban, keep looking.
6. How are medications stored, and who has access?
Medication should be locked up, with clear rules about who can open it. SAMHSA’s guidance points to medication lock boxes as one way to manage the risk of diversion, so that your prescriptions stay yours. Ask where medication is kept, who holds the key, and what happens if something goes missing.
7. Can I visit before I decide?
Yes, and any house worth living in will let you. Fifteen minutes in the kitchen tells you more than an hour on the phone: whether the place is tidy and whether residents look relaxed or tense around a visitor.
8. Who is here overnight, and who do I call at 3 a.m.?
A good house can give you a name and a number that a person answers at 3 a.m. Peer-run homes may rely on a senior resident or an on-call manager; staffed homes may have someone awake overnight. If the answer is a voicemail box, count that against the house. In an emergency, call 911; in a mental health crisis, call or text 988.
9. What do you expect of me, and what happens if I can’t manage one?
Most houses expect some mix of a job or school, meeting attendance, chores, and a curfew. Ask what happens if you lose your job, or miss curfew because your shift ran late. Look for a house that, after one missed curfew, gives a warning and a sit-down with the house manager rather than an eviction notice.
How long people stay, and what makes it work
Plan on at least six months if you can. A 2023 study in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse followed 455 residents of 48 sober living houses in Los Angeles County and found that those who stayed at least six months had more days abstinent and lower odds of an ongoing substance use disorder or legal problems than those who left earlier.
Keep going to outpatient treatment while you live there. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) notes that participation in residential or outpatient treatment for less than 90 days is of limited effectiveness, and that outcomes improve with longer treatment. If you want help lining up outpatient care that fits around a sober living move, our New Jersey team can talk it through with you.
What to ask before you choose a sober living program in NJ
Ask to hear it from residents and to see it on paper, at any house and with us too:
- Can I talk to someone who lives here now? Ask them how the manager handled the last curfew or rent problem.
- Can I have the rules, fees, and certification in writing to take away?
- Who do I contact if something goes wrong and the house manager is the problem?
- Do they answer plainly, or stall? A manager who gets irritated by questions will likely be hard to deal with when you have a problem.
What Recovery Unplugged’s New Jersey program looks like
Recovery Unplugged has one New Jersey location, in Merchantville in Camden County, offering a partial hospitalization program (PHP) with housing, an in-person intensive outpatient program (IOP), and virtual IOP. Virtual IOP is for substance use and for people physically in New Jersey during sessions. In New Jersey, Recovery Unplugged’s housing comes with PHP; ask our team what’s available after treatment ends. Our PHP with supportive housing page covers housing during treatment. Music-assisted treatment is part of our New Jersey programs, because some people find it easier to talk about a song they picked than about their own using. A first conversation covers what you are dealing with, what you have tried, and where you will live once treatment ends. If you’re weighing a sober living move, talk to our New Jersey team about what comes after treatment.
Frequently asked questions
Is a sober living home the same as treatment? No. A sober living home is a substance-free place to live, not a clinical program.
How do I know if a house is certified in New Jersey? Ask the operator which certification the home holds, then confirm it with GSARR, New Jersey’s NARR affiliate, and ask whether the Department of Community Affairs licenses it.
Can I stay on medication for opioid use disorder in a sober living home? You should be able to. SAMHSA advises recovery housing not to restrict prescribed medications, including those for opioid use disorder. If a home bans them, keep looking.
How long should I plan to stay? Six months or more, if you can. A 2023 study of 455 sober living residents found six-month stays linked to more days abstinent.
What is the most important question to ask? Ask what happens if someone returns to use. A good house helps the person back into treatment instead of leaving them homeless after one bad night.
Does sober living replace outpatient treatment? No. Sober living gives you a stable place to live while outpatient care, therapy, or peer support groups do the clinical work.
Leaving treatment soon? Where you live next matters as much as the program you just finished. Our New Jersey team can help you plan it.