AzRHA Quality & Operational Standards
AzRHA’s Quality and Operational Standards establish the minimum expectations for ethical, safe, and recovery-oriented housing across Arizona. These standards align with NARR principles and are used for certification, oversight, and continuous quality improvement.
Each domain below reflects a core principle essential to effective recovery housing.
- Written mission and vision statements aligned with AzRHA core principles
- Affidavit confirming compliance with state and federal non-discrimination laws
- Honest, accurate marketing and advertising — no misleading claims, outcomes, pricing, or services
- Clear disclosure of all fees and financial obligations prior to acceptance
- Signed acknowledgment of financial terms by applicants
- Accurate recordkeeping of all resident charges, payments, and deposits
- Written refund policies disclosed prior to intake
- Refunds processed within 10 business days (preferably at discharge)
- Operators and staff may not engage in residents' personal financial affairs except for agreed-upon program fees
If residents engage in paid work with the operator or staff:
- Participation is voluntary
- No penalties for declining work
- Work does not interfere with recovery
- Wages meet minimum wage and market standards
- No special privileges or favoritism
- Work relationships must not disrupt the recovery environment
- Collection of resident demographic data
- Evaluation and reporting of process and outcome data to improve services
- Legal business entity documentation
- Current liability and appropriate insurance coverage
- Written permission to operate at the property
- Background checks for all staff and volunteers with direct resident contact
- Resident orientation prior to signing agreements
- Posted house rules, grievance procedures, and resident rights
- Written resident agreements detailing:
- Services provided
- Recovery and exit planning
- Financial terms
- Clear policies regarding personal property
- Written grievance procedures
- Right to escalate unresolved grievances
- Clear identification of responsible leadership
- Resident input in applicant screening
- Resident-driven length of stay policies
- Protection of fair housing rights
- Secure record storage
- Access limited to authorized personnel
- Compliance with applicable confidentiality laws
- Resident participation in recovery and exit planning
- Encouragement of alumni engagement
- Defined priority population
- Leadership and staffing aligned with resident needs
- Ongoing cultural competency training
- Person-driven recovery planning
- Support for independent appointment scheduling
- Knowledgeable staff
- Accessible resource directories
- Informal peer-based support
- Scheduled recovery groups and activities
- Staffing plans that support programming
- Screening policies that promote emotional and physical safety
- Resident-determined lengths of stay
- Written policies addressing:
- Substance use
- Searches
- Drug screening
- Medication storage
- Written house rules and agreements
- Peer leadership and accountability frameworks
- Weekly activity schedules
- Engagement in work, school, service, recovery meetings, or creative pursuits
- Shared responsibilities
- Regular house meetings
- Peer-based relationships and activities
- Connections to recovery communities, employment, education, and services
- Sober social activities
- Mentorship and sponsorship encouragement
- Residential furnishings
- Adequate living space
- Functional appliances
- Shared social areas
- Compliance with health and safety codes
- Smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, CO detectors
- Emergency plans and evacuation procedures
- No external indicators of institutional use
- Property maintenance
- Neighbor communication protocols
- Courtesy rules addressing noise, parking, smoking, and public behavior
NARR Support Levels
Recovery Residence Levels of Support
Recovery housing is structured into different levels of support to meet the varying needs of individuals throughout their recovery journey. Each level provides a unique combination of administration, services, residence structure, and staffing to ensure residents receive the appropriate environment and resources for long-term success.
Levels of Support AzRHA Provides
Level I — Peer Run
Democratically operated residences focused on peer support, house meetings, and independent living environments.
Level II - Monitored
Structured residences with house management, policies and procedures, drug screening, and peer accountability.
Level IV — Service Provider
Highly structured residential environments offering clinical services, credentialed staff, and comprehensive recovery programming.
Drug Testing & Sober Living
AzRHA and its members are committed to maintaining ethical relationships with the populations we serve and to continually strive to raise the bar in recovery housing. From time to time, AzRHA finds it necessary to publish the organization’s position on certain aspects of the ever-changing landscape of recovery housing. One of the cornerstones of AzRHA mission is to define and promote ethics and standards and to set and maintain the standard for quality and safety in recovery housing in Arizona.
This commitment includes prohibiting individuals with a direct or indirect ownership interest in a laboratory from either sending specimens or making referrals for services.
Code of Ethic rules addressing this:
Provide consistent, fair practices for drug testing that promote the residents’ recovery and the health and safety of the recovery environment.
Promote the residence with marketing or advertising that is supported by accurate, open and honest claims.
Sustain transparency in operational and financial decisions.
- 1. I am a sober living operator that operates a sober living program(s) not licensed by Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) therefore, I do not bill insurance for urine drug testing or confirmations of any kind for any resident nor is it billed through a 3rd party.
- 2. I do not receive directly or indirectly payments and/or commissions and/or any trades from any lab company that provides confirmation testing and/or point of care testing, qualitative and/or quantitative for any resident.
- 3. I am not an employee of any lab company that provides drug testing services of any kind to any resident in our program.
- 4. I have not signed a marketing agreement or any variation thereof with a 3rd party, nor do I receive a 1099 for drug testing services of any kind for any resident in our program.
- 5. I do not receive any free urine drug testing supplies for our program.
- 6. All drug testing policies and fees are clearly outlined in the program’s policies and the resident is made aware of the policy prior to admission.
- 7. All fees are disclosed at the time of admission and is clearly denoted what portion of dollars collected are attributed to drug testing fees and resident fees in the resident agreement.
- 8. Our program does not promote excessive drug testing of residents and understands that it is not conducive to recovery and can negatively impact the resident’s recovery.
- 9. Our program takes the necessary steps to avoid personal and/or business conflicts of interest, i.e. a conflict of interest arising when a set of circumstances creates a risk that decisions, judgments or actions regarding a primary interest is unduly influenced by a secondary interest i.e. financial gain.