Recovery housing is one of the most evidenced parts of the recovery system — but most individual homes can't show it for themselves. Funders don't want to hear that residents are doing well; they want retention, recovery capital and where people landed six months later. This page explains the measures, links the published sources behind each one, and shows how Sober Living Companion collects them.
Every statistic in your reports will be your home's own data. We don't publish other operators' results as though they were ours, and we don't quote a success rate for the platform — a number like that would be meaningless across homes with different populations, lengths of stay and admission criteria.
What we provide is the measurement instrument and the plumbing: validated questionnaires, automatic collection, and exports shaped the way funders want them. The findings are yours.
The organizations linked below — NIH, SAMHSA, NARR and academic publishers — are cited as the public sources behind these measures. None of them endorse Sober Living Companion, and no link implies a partnership or approval.
Standardised outcome measurement has moved from a nice-to-have to a condition of funding and, increasingly, of certification. Three reasons it now sits on the critical path:
The National Alliance for Recovery Residences standard — the basis for most state affiliate certification — requires ongoing quality-improvement systems. Tracking outcomes is how you demonstrate one exists.
Programs funded through SAMHSA report client outcomes at intake, follow-up and discharge through GPRA and the SPARS system. If you subcontract under a State Opioid Response grant, this reporting is not optional.
Treatment centers, drug courts and probation increasingly ask where their clients do best. A home that can answer with real retention figures gets the next referral.
You don't have to do everything at once, and you shouldn't. Researchers have proposed a tiered model for recovery-housing quality and outcome measures — start at Tier 1, add tiers as capacity grows. Sober Living Companion supports all four, and each measure is opt-in per resident.
Entry date, exit date, why the person left, referral source, primary substance, and basic demographics.
The exit reason is the one that matters most, and it's the one most homes skip. Without it a graduation and an eviction look identical in your data, and your "successful exits" figure reads zero — not because the home is failing, but because the field is empty.
BARC-10, the Brief Assessment of Recovery Capital: ten questions, scored 10–60, collected at intake and again at exit. The change between the two is the single most persuasive number in a recovery-housing application.
Recovery capital predicts retention and completion across recovery-residence settings — see the study of 546 residents in Florida recovery residences, and the psychometric validation of BARC-10.
Brief screeners repeated during the stay: PHQ-4 for anxiety and low mood, GAD-7 for anxiety, a two-item craving check, quality of life, and locus of control.
These are the measures that spot trouble while there's still time to act. A craving score climbing three weeks before a positive test is actionable; the positive test on its own is just a record.
Substance-use screening with AUDIT and DAST-2, plus housing, employment, legal involvement and social connection — then follow-up at 30, 90, 180 and 365 days after discharge.
This tier is where homes separate themselves. Anyone can report how residents did while living under their roof. Showing that someone was housed, working and abstinent six months after leaving is rare, and it is the strongest evidence a funder will read.
Some of this needs answers from residents. A lot of it your team already records, and gets counted automatically — no extra data entry.
The share of residents who stayed 7, 30 and 180 days — the field-standard cut points for initiation, engagement and retention. Someone too new to have reached a mark is left out of it rather than counted as a failure.
BARC-10 at intake and exit, with the average change and the share who improved. Emailed automatically at the right moment; residents answer in a browser with no app to download.
Nine exit reasons, each counted as a successful, neutral or unsuccessful outcome, plus where they went next.
Negative drug screens, meeting attendance, sobriety-date continuity and on-time payments — drawn from what staff already log day to day.
Follow-ups open on their own at 30, 90, 180 and 365 days, with the resident's number ready to call or text — or email them the questions if they don't pick up.
Build any questionnaire you like — a weekly goal check, a satisfaction rating, a house-specific question — and send it on the same schedule as the validated ones.
Three exports, each shaped for a different reader:
The first two are de-identified: residents appear under a code, never a name, because a file leaving your building for a funder shouldn't carry protected health information. The answer-level export does name people and is meant to stay in-house.
Once you can measure outcomes, these are the doors it opens. Always confirm current amounts, eligibility and deadlines on the official announcement — programs change every year.
The largest federal funder of recovery support services. Start with the grants portal and the publication on recovery housing funding sources and financial sustainability. Most federal awards require non-profit or government status.
Search current opportunities in the NIH Guide. Homes partnering with a university on a study are often eligible as a research site even when they can't apply directly.
For technology, not services: NIDA's SBIR/STTR topics of interest and SBIR.gov. Non-dilutive, and open to for-profit small businesses.
Several states have allocated settlement money specifically to recovery housing, often through state behavioral-health agencies rather than a federal portal. Your state NARR affiliate usually knows first.
Everything on this page traces back to a public source. Nothing here is our own research.
Links were checked when this page was published. Citing a source is not a claim of endorsement — see the note at the top.
Tier 1 costs you nothing but the habit of recording why someone left. The app handles the rest — $60/month flat, unlimited houses and residents, and always free for residents.
Questions? Call (916) 877-6237 or book a 30-minute walkthrough.