Who oversees what

Federal government

• Kickbacks are a federal crime.A federal law called EKRA (18 U.S.C. § 220) makes it a crime to pay or receive money, gifts, or anything else in return for sending someone to a sober home, treatment center, or lab. It covers private insurance, not just government plans. [1]
• Medicare and Medicaid.A separate law, the Anti-Kickback Statute, bans the same kind of payments when Medicare, Medicaid, or another federal health program pays. [2] The HHS Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) investigates fraud against those programs. [3]
• Prosecutors.The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Offices bring federal criminal cases. The Policy page lists some of them.
• False advertising.The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) can go after treatment centers, referral lines, and sober homes that lie in their ads. That includes fake "helplines" and search ads that pretend to be a different clinic. [4][5]
• SAMHSA funds care. It does not license it.SAMHSA runs the national helpline and sends money to states. It does not license rehabs or sober homes. The one exception is methadone clinics (opioid treatment programs), which SAMHSA certifies. [6]

State government

• Licensing.Your state decides who can run a treatment program. In California that is the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). In Florida it is the Department of Children and Families (DCF). In Arizona it is the Department of Health Services (ADHS). In Pennsylvania it is the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP). [7][8][9][10]
• State brokering laws.Some states have their own patient brokering crimes. Florida's is Fla. Stat. § 817.505. Arizona's is A.R.S. § 13-3730. California bans referral payments by licensed and certified programs under Health & Safety Code § 11831.6. Pennsylvania has no separate patient brokering crime that we could verify, but its recovery house rules ban referral commissions. The Policy page has each state's history.
• Insurance fraud unitsinvestigate fake or inflated insurance bills.
• Medicaid Fraud Control Units, usually inside the state Attorney General's office, investigate fraud against Medicaid and abuse of patients in Medicaid-funded care. [11]

County government

• County behavioral health departmentsoften hold the contracts and money for publicly funded treatment. In Los Angeles County that is the Department of Public Health's Substance Abuse Prevention and Control office. In Pennsylvania each county has a Single County Authority. [12][13]
• County prosecutors(District Attorneys, or State Attorneys in Florida) charge state crimes like brokering and insurance fraud. Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg's office led Florida's sober home task force and testified to Congress. [14][15]

City government

• Cities control zoning, building safety, and code enforcement.A city can make sure a house is safe, not overcrowded, and follows the same rules as other homes.
• Cities cannot single out people in recovery.The next section explains why.

Why sober homes are treated as homes, not treatment

Federal law treats addiction as a disability. People in recovery who are not currently using illegal drugs are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Fair Housing Act, which added disability protections in 1988. [16][17] Alcoholism is covered too.

Because of this, a sober home is treated as a home. A city cannot pass zoning rules that block people in recovery from living together in a neighborhood when it allows other families or groups to live there. In 2013 a federal appeals court allowed people in recovery to take Newport Beach, California to trial over an ordinance that had the practical effect of blocking new sober homes from most neighborhoods. [18]

These protections exist for a real reason. In the Newport Beach case, the court described a campaign by residents to remove sober homes from their neighborhoods.

Brokers use the same protections as cover. A house that only offers housing usually needs no treatment license, so no agency checks it. States handle this differently:

• Californiadoes not license sober homes that only provide housing. If a home provides treatment services, it needs a DHCS license. A treatment program and a sober home can have the same owner, but the program has to report it to the state. [8][34]
• Floridahas voluntary certification (run by FARR under Fla. Stat. § 397.487). Licensed treatment programs may only refer patients to certified homes. [19][20]
• Arizonarequires sober homes to be licensed by ADHS (A.R.S. § 36-2062). [21]
• Pennsylvanialicenses recovery houses that get state or county funding or referrals (Act 59 of 2017). [10]

Your rights as a sober living resident

In California, if you've stayed in a sober living home for longer than 30 days, you may be considered a tenant and likely have the right to a proper eviction. Many residents are never told this, and some are thrown out by force. One of our goals is to work with police to prevent this from happening and to help them understand your rights.

What California law says:

• A tenant can only be removed after a court case, called an unlawful detainer, and a court order. Only a sheriff or marshal can carry out that order. Regular police cannot remove a tenant without one. [22][23]
• A landlord cannot change the locks, shut off utilities, remove doors or windows, or take your things to force you out. If they do, a court can order them to pay your actual losses plus up to $100 a day, with at least $250 for each violation, and attorney fees. This is Cal. Civ. Code § 789.3. [24]
• This is true even if you owe rent or broke a house rule. The home still has to go to court. [22]
• The main exception is a "lodger": one person renting a room in a home where the owner also lives and no one else rents. Most sober homes have several residents, so this exception often won't fit. [22][25]

If you were locked out or thrown out, write down the date, who did it, and what was taken. Contact a local tenant legal aid office. California's court self-help site explains the eviction process. [23]

Other states have their own rules. Florida bans lockouts and utility shutoffs for tenants, but its tenant law does not cover housing that is "incidental" to counseling or similar services, so whether a Florida sober home resident counts as a tenant depends on the facts. [26][27]

Why this matters when you report

Since the work is split, one agency may say "that's not ours." That does not mean nobody can help. A kickback may belong to federal prosecutors. A bad insurance bill may belong to the state insurance fraud unit. An unlicensed program may belong to the state licensing agency. An unsafe house may belong to the city. The Get Help page sorts this out by state and by what happened.

Sources

1. 1. 18 U.S.C. § 220 (EKRA)
2. 2. 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7b (Anti-Kickback Statute)
3. 3. HHS-OIG, Report Fraud
4. 4. FTC, R360 press release (May 2022; archived)
5. 5. FTC complaint, Mercury Marketing / Malibu Detox (OARFPA, 15 U.S.C. § 45d)
6. 6. SAMHSA, Become an Opioid Treatment Program (42 C.F.R. Part 8 certification)
7. 7. CA DHCS, Licensing & Certification Division
8. 8. CA DHCS, Facility Licensing (when a license is required)
9. 9. AZ ADHS, Behavioral Health Facilities licensing
10. 10. PA DDAP, Recovery House Licensure · Act 59 of 2017
11. 11. HHS-OIG, Medicaid Fraud Control Units
12. 12. LA County RecoverLA (Substance Abuse Prevention and Control treatment finder)
13. 13. PA DDAP, County Drug and Alcohol Offices (SCAs)
14. 14. Palm Beach County Grand Jury, Report on the Proliferation of Fraud and Abuse in Florida's Addiction Treatment Industry (Dec. 8, 2016)
15. 15. Office of the State Attorney, 15th Circuit, Addiction Recovery Task Force · House E&C hearing, Dec. 12, 2017
16. 16. 42 U.S.C. § 3602(h) (Fair Housing Act definition of handicap)
17. 17. 42 U.S.C. § 12210 (ADA, illegal drug use and people in recovery)
18. 18. Pacific Shores Properties, LLC v. City of Newport Beach, 730 F.3d 1142 (9th Cir. 2013)
19. 19. Fla. Stat. § 397.487 (voluntary certification of recovery residences)
20. 20. Fla. Stat. § 397.4873 (referrals to or from recovery residences)
21. 21. A.R.S. § 36-2062 (sober living home licensure)
22. 22. California Attorney General, Law Enforcement Bulletin 2022-DLE-05, Protecting Tenants Against Unlawful Lockouts
23. 23. California Courts Self-Help Guide, Eviction
24. 24. Cal. Civ. Code § 789.3
25. 25. Cal. Penal Code § 602.3 (lodgers)
26. 26. Fla. Stat. § 83.67 (prohibited practices, lockouts and utility shutoffs)
27. 27. Fla. Stat. § 83.42 (exclusions)
28. 28. CMS, State Medicaid Director Letter #17-003
29. 29. Cal. Health & Safety Code § 11834.23
30. 30. HUD, Notice of the Withdrawal of OGC Guidance Documents (withdrawal effective Sept. 25, 2025) · the withdrawn 2016 Joint Statement (historical)
31. 31. Cal. Civ. Code § 1940
32. 32. Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code § 7280 (transient occupancy, 30 days or less)
33. 33. The Oaklandside, "Oakland sues sober-living homes over illegal evictions and sexual assault" (Aug. 29, 2023)
34. 34. Cal. Health & Safety Code § 11833.05