Sober Living Companion is a program of Empower Next Project, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit (EIN 39-3580172). The resident app is free, forever, and home memberships help fund rent assistance and free transitional counseling for people in early recovery. Helping good operators open well-run, well-protected homes is part of that mission — more safe beds means more people housed in recovery. Read our mission →
Here's the honest version, with no invented premium figures — just the coverage types homes typically consider, why insurers treat this work as higher-risk, and how to make your home more insurable.
Insurance is easy to treat as a box to check and a bill to minimize. For a recovery home, that's a mistake — not because anything is likely to go wrong on any given day, but because of what you're actually doing: housing people, often at a fragile point in their lives, together in a shared property you're responsible for.
That combination creates real liability exposure, and it's worth being clear-eyed about it without being alarmist. Think through the honest list. A resident or guest can be injured on the property. The building or its contents can be damaged. Someone can make an allegation — about the home, about staff, about how a situation was handled — that you then have to answer, whether or not it's founded. And in a population that includes people early in recovery, an overdose on the premises is a possibility no responsible operator can pretend away.
None of these are reasons to be afraid of the work. They're reasons to carry coverage and keep good records, so that a hard day stays a hard day instead of becoming the end of the home. The right policies mean a single incident is something your home survives — a claim your carrier defends and pays, rather than a personal financial catastrophe that closes your doors and displaces every resident living there.
These are the policies homes commonly consider — not a universal checklist. What you actually need, and at what limits, depends on your model, size, and state. Review the full list with a specialized broker.
The foundation for most operators. General liability responds to third-party bodily injury and property damage — the resident's guest who slips on the stairs, damage your operation causes to someone else's property. It's the coverage that answers the everyday "someone got hurt and it's on us" scenario, and it's usually the first policy a broker will build around.
Covers physical loss or damage to the building (if you own it) and its contents — furniture, appliances, and the things that make the house livable — from events like fire, storms, or theft. If you have a mortgage, a lender almost always requires it; if you lease, your own contents and improvements still need covering. A standard homeowners or landlord policy often excludes a recovery-housing operation, which is exactly why the coverage type matters more than the label.
Where your home provides any kind of supportive services, professional liability can respond to claims about how those services were delivered. Closely related, abuse and molestation coverage responds to allegations of abuse or misconduct that many general liability policies specifically exclude. Because a sober living home supervises vulnerable people, these are important to discuss with a broker rather than assume are already covered — applicability depends on your model.
Most relevant to nonprofits and homes governed by a board. D&O coverage protects the people who make governance decisions — the directors and officers — against claims arising from those decisions. If you operate under a board or a nonprofit structure, this is a coverage your board will likely want to talk through.
If you have employees — a paid house manager, support staff — most states require workers' compensation, which covers work-related injury and illness for those employees. Whether it applies to you turns on your staffing model and your state's rules (an owner-operator or an in-kind arrangement may sit differently than a payroll employee), so confirm your situation locally.
Relevant only if the home transports residents — to meetings, appointments, or work — in a vehicle the operation owns or uses. Personal auto policies typically don't cover business use, so if driving residents is part of your model, this is a gap worth closing. If you never transport anyone, you may not need it at all.
An umbrella policy sits on top of your other liability coverage and extends the limits, providing additional protection when a serious claim exceeds what an underlying policy would pay. Many operators use it to raise their overall ceiling affordably once the core policies are in place. Your broker can advise whether, and at what level, it makes sense for your home.
Read this list as a menu, not a mandate. Two homes with different sizes, staffing, and states will end up with genuinely different packages. The value here is knowing what exists to ask about — the right combination and limits for your home is a conversation for a broker who writes recovery-housing coverage.
Here's the part other pages skip. Getting coverage for a recovery home is often harder than getting coverage for a typical small business, and it's fair to know that going in.
Insurers classify sober living and recovery housing as higher-risk. The reasoning, from their side, is the same reality this page opened with: you're housing vulnerable people — sometimes in early recovery — together in a shared setting, which raises the odds of claims involving injury, property damage, allegations, or an overdose on the premises. Because of that classification, some carriers simply won't write it, and a generic homeowners or landlord policy usually excludes the operation entirely. Operators who assume their existing property policy has them covered are frequently wrong in a way they only discover at claim time.
The practical answer is to stop shopping like a homeowner and start working with a broker who specializes in human services or recovery housing. A specialized broker knows which carriers actually cover this work, how to present your home so it's understood accurately, and how to assemble the coverages above into one package. It's worth the search — the right broker is the difference between "no carrier will touch us" and a sensible, properly structured program.
On price: we're not going to quote you a premium. What sober living insurance costs depends entirely on your location, the size and condition of the property, which coverages and limits you buy, how many residents and employees you have, whether you transport people, and your claims history. Any article that hands you a flat dollar figure is guessing. The only honest number is the one a specialized broker gives you after quoting your actual home — so get real quotes, and treat anyone who "already knows the price" with caution.
Insurers price risk. A home that visibly manages its risk is a home carriers would rather write — and, more importantly, a safer place for the people living in it. Almost all of it comes down to running well and writing things down.
Clear, written house rules and a signed resident agreement at move-in establish what everyone agreed to. When a dispute or allegation arises, "here is the policy, here is their signature" is far stronger than "we always tell people that." Written and signed beats spoken and remembered every time. See our guide to sober living home rules.
Rules you enforce inconsistently are a liability, not a protection. Applying your policies the same way for everyone reduces the risk of a fairness or discrimination complaint — and a record showing consistent enforcement is exactly what helps if one is ever made.
When something happens — an injury, a rule violation, a medical event, a confrontation — document it promptly: what happened, when, who was involved, and what you did. Contemporaneous incident records are one of the most valuable things you can have if a claim or allegation surfaces later, because memory fades and paperwork doesn't.
Many claims are ordinary premises injuries — a loose stair rail, an icy walk, a faulty smoke detector. Keeping the property well-maintained, with working safety equipment and a record of upkeep, both prevents incidents and demonstrates diligence to an insurer.
Staff and house managers who are trained on your policies, on de-escalation, and on how to respond to a medical emergency make fewer mistakes and handle the hard moments better. Keeping a record of who was trained on what is part of showing a carrier you run a careful operation.
Given the population, having naloxone (Narcan) available and staff who know how to use it is a basic, potentially life-saving preparation for an overdose on the premises. It's first and foremost about protecting residents' lives; it also reflects the kind of preparedness that responsible operation calls for.
The thread running through all of it: records. Nearly every risk-reduction step above is only as good as your ability to show you did it. Signed agreements, incident logs, enforcement history, testing records, maintenance notes — good record-keeping is what turns "we run a careful home" into something you can actually demonstrate when it counts.
Notice what nearly every point on this page has in common. Making your home more insurable, and defending yourself if a claim or allegation ever comes, both depend on the same thing: being able to show what happened, what was agreed, and who was where. Incident records. Signed agreements. Testing logs. Curfew and attendance history. When a carrier, an attorney, or a court asks, the operator who can produce those records is in a completely different position than the one reconstructing events from a group text.
That's the honest role Sober Living Companion plays here. It keeps that record for you: resident records, e-signed house agreements, drug-test (UA) logs, passes, curfew GPS check-ins, and meeting attendance — the documentation this page keeps pointing to, in one place instead of scattered across binders and phones.
To be completely clear about what this does and doesn't do: software cannot lower your premium, and it does not satisfy any insurance requirement — only your carrier and broker decide those things, and we make no promise about either. What good records genuinely help with is defending yourself in a claim. That's the claim we're making, and the only one.
It's a flat $60/month per home, unlimited residents — the only dollar figure on this page, and the one price we can actually stand behind. Because we're a program of a 501(c)(3) non-profit, your membership is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law, and it helps fund rent assistance and free counseling for people in early recovery. First month free with code FIRSTMONTHFREE, and every resident gets the app free.
Documentation helps you defend a claim. It is not insurance and makes no premium guarantee.
It depends on your model, size, and state, so treat this as a starting list to review with a broker, not a mandate. Homes commonly consider general liability, property insurance for the building and its contents, professional liability with abuse and molestation coverage where applicable, directors and officers coverage for nonprofits and boards, workers' compensation if you have employees, commercial auto if you transport residents, and an umbrella policy over the top. Which of these you actually need, and at what limits, varies — a broker who specializes in human services or recovery housing should build your specific package.
There is no single number, and any page quoting a flat figure is guessing. Premiums depend on your location, the size and condition of the property, which coverages and limits you buy, how many residents and employees you have, whether you transport people, and your claims history. Because insurers treat recovery housing as higher-risk, quotes can also vary widely between carriers. The only honest way to learn your cost is to get real quotes from a broker who writes this kind of coverage — we will not invent a premium for you.
It depends, and you should verify locally. Some coverage is often required by parties other than the state: a mortgage lender typically requires property insurance, a landlord's lease usually requires liability coverage, and most states require workers' compensation once you have employees. Beyond those, requirements vary by state and municipality, and by whether your area certifies recovery residences. Even where nothing is strictly mandated, operating an uninsured home is a serious risk. Confirm what applies to you with a licensed insurance broker and your attorney.
Insurers classify recovery housing as higher-risk because you are housing vulnerable people, sometimes in early recovery, in a shared residential setting. That raises the odds of claims involving injury, property damage, allegations, or an overdose on the premises. As a result, many standard carriers won't write it, and a generic homeowners or landlord policy usually excludes this kind of operation. The practical answer is to work with a broker who specializes in human services or recovery housing and knows which carriers actually cover it.
Abuse and molestation coverage responds to allegations of abuse or misconduct, which many general liability policies specifically exclude. Because sober living homes house people in a vulnerable, supervised setting, some operators and their brokers treat this as an important coverage to discuss, often alongside professional liability. Whether it applies to your model and how it should be structured is exactly the kind of question to put to a broker who specializes in this field, rather than assuming a standard policy already covers it.
We won't claim that. No software can promise a lower premium or satisfy an insurance requirement — only your carrier and your broker decide what you pay and what you must carry. What good record-keeping genuinely helps with is defending yourself if a claim or allegation ever arises: incident reports, signed agreements, testing logs, and attendance records show what happened and what was in place. Sober Living Companion keeps those records; that documentation is useful in a dispute, but it is not an insurance product and makes no premium guarantee.