The Supportive-Recovery Residence Program.

Assembly Member Haney, working with Principal coauthor Stefani and Senator Allen, advances a plan to create a new Supportive-Recovery Residence Program that ties abstinence-focused recovery housing to California’s Housing First framework, wiring a defined pathway for state-funded supportive-recovery residences to operate within a harm-reduction context while prioritizing housing outcomes. The most significant change is the authorization of funding for SRRs that emphasize abstinence, paired with specific requirements intended to ensure housing stability and continuity for residents who have or are at risk of substance use disorders, including a prohibition on eviction solely for relapse.

Under the proposal, a housing residence would qualify as a supportive-recovery residence if it serves people experiencing or at risk of homelessness who have substance use disorders, and if it (1) satisfies the core components of Housing First, (2) incorporates substance-use–specific peer support and recovery-oriented design features, (3) emphasizes abstinence, and (4) offers tenants permanent housing as an ongoing option. The Department of Housing and Community Development would adopt national standards as the minimum for SRRs receiving public funding, with a presumption of compliance for SRRs certified by a recognized affiliate of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences that meets those standards, including on-site availability of an opioid overdose reversal medication. The department would establish a separate process to verify Housing First compliance and could charge an annual verification fee of up to 100 dollars per unit, with all fees deposited in a dedicated fund from which verification activities are funded.

The bill also broadens Housing First core components to govern SRR operations, outlining tenant-screening practices that accommodate applicants regardless of sobriety status, prohibitions on eviction based on drug or alcohol use in isolation, rights to lease tenancy, and non-coercive service engagement. It directs that at least 90 percent of program funds awarded to each jurisdiction be used for housing or housing-based services delivered through a harm-reduction model, requires grantees to demonstrate housing-retention outcomes comparable to harm-reduction benchmarks before subgrants are issued, and ensures access to prescribed medications and related supports. Periodic monitoring would assess compliance with Housing First components, with safeguards to protect privacy, ensure relapse support, prohibit eviction for relapse except under specific community-welfare circumstances, and require that residents unable or unwilling to remain in abstinence-focused housing be offered a permanent harm-reduction alternative and secured permanent housing.

Beyond program design and standards, the bill situates SRRs within the broader policy landscape by tying the program to the state’s ongoing homelessness and behavioral health strategies overseen by the interagency council on homelessness. It allows counties to contract for recovery-residence services that meet or exceed the state standards and contemplates memoranda of understanding with certifying bodies for reciprocity. A dedicated fund for SRR certification activities is created in the state treasury, available upon legislative appropriation, reflecting an implementation pathway that couples regulatory oversight with funding mechanisms. The bill’s findings frame substance use and homelessness as intertwined public-health concerns, characterizing recovery housing as a potential component of California’s continuum of care, while preserving explicit authority for local control and standards in contracting for recovery services.