Living here
Everything below is public on purpose. You should be able to read the rules, the testing protocol and the medication policy before you ever speak to us — not after you’ve paid a deposit.
Structure
What a week actually looks like.
We are a Level II recovery residence in the NARR framework — monitored, with a compensated house manager, house rules, testing, and clinical services accessed out in the community rather than delivered here. Confirm level before publishing
Mornings
Up by a set time, bed made, room straight, chore done. At Deveron Ridge the animals get fed before anything else happens. Confirm wake time
Days
After a settling-in period, everyone is expected to be occupied — a job, school, volunteering, an outpatient schedule, or an active and documented job search. Workstations are there so a search doesn’t require leaving the house.
Meetings
A minimum number of outside recovery meetings each week. Confirm number We don’t require a particular fellowship. AA, NA, SMART, Refuge, Dharma, a church group, a therapist — if it works, it counts.
Evenings
Dinner tends to happen together without anyone mandating it. Curfew is 10pm every night for the first 30 days; after that, midnight on weeknights and 1am Friday and Saturday. It is enforced.
Sunday nights — the house meeting
Every Sunday at 8pm, the whole house sits down together: the household, chores, conflicts, wins, anything that needs saying out loud. It’s also when the weekly drug and alcohol test happens. Once a month, the wider Kokoro community gathers across all three houses.
House rules
The whole list.
Read it before you commit to anything. Nothing here should be a surprise on day three.
Email us for the guest agreementA downloadable PDF is coming. Attach PDF
Substances
No alcohol and no non-prescribed drugs, on the property or off it. That includes anything intoxicating that is technically legal — kratom, kava, delta-8, nitrous, and non-prescribed use of anything prescribed to someone else.
Prescribed medication is a separate matter and is covered in the medication policy.
Curfew and overnights
The first 30 days are a probation period: curfew is 10pm, seven nights a week, and no overnight passes. After probation, curfew moves to midnight on weeknights and 1am on Friday and Saturday.
Overnight passes are available after probation with advance approval from the house manager — and every guest tests on return, every time. That’s not suspicion; it’s what keeps a pass system honest for the whole house.
Visitors and family weekends
On designated weekends and in line with house guidelines, family can visit, tour the property and spend real time together — we want families to see where their person lives. Other visitors by approval, in common areas. No overnight visitors. At Nevada Avenue, no male visitors inside the house at any time. Confirm designated weekends
Relationships
We don’t police anybody’s private life, but relationships between guests of our houses are not permitted while both are in residence. It goes badly for both people and it destabilises the house around them.
Chores, cleanliness and quiet hours
A rotating chore assigned at the house meeting, done daily. Rooms kept clean, common areas left better than you found them, dishes done the same day. Quiet hours after curfew. Confirm quiet hours
Cars, phones and work
Guests may keep a car with valid licence and insurance on file. Phones are not restricted — you’re an adult. Employment is encouraged from the start once the settling-in period is done. Confirm parking availability per house
Rent, deposit and notice
Rent is due on a fixed schedule and paid on time. Deposit, refund terms and notice period are set out in the guest agreement and in Admissions & Cost. Confirm payment schedule and refund terms
What gets someone asked to leave
Violence or threats. Bringing substances into the house. Theft. Sexual harassment. Repeated refusal to test. Non-payment after a documented conversation. Anything that makes the house unsafe for the people in it.
A positive test on its own is handled under the relapse protocol — it is not automatically an eviction.
Testing
Drug and alcohol testing protocol.
Published in detail because referring professionals need it and families deserve it.
| Frequency | Weekly for every guest, collected at the Sunday-night house meeting — plus random testing on any other day, for-cause testing at the house manager’s discretion, and a test on return from every overnight pass. |
|---|---|
| Selection | The weekly Sunday test is universal; the rest are random. Predictable-only testing tests nothing, so nobody knows which other days are coming. |
| Panel | 12-panel including fentanyl and buprenorphine, plus EtG strips for alcohol (roughly an 80-hour window) and breathalyser as needed. Confirm panel |
| Collection | Semi-observed with temperature verification. Refusal, tampering, or an unexplained absence at collection is treated as a positive. |
| Confirmation | A non-negative instant result is sent for lab confirmation before any consequence beyond an immediate conversation. |
| Prescriptions | Documentation of any prescription is captured within 48 hours of intake and kept on file, so a documented prescription registers as a recorded result and never as a violation. |
| Documentation | Results are documented and, with a signed release, shared with a referring provider, probation officer, or drug court on request. |
Medication
Medication and MAT policy.
Kokoro is a MAT-friendly sober living environment. Being prescribed medication for opioid use disorder is not a reason we would turn someone away, and it is not treated as a relapse.
We accept guests prescribed buprenorphine / Suboxone, extended-release naltrexone / Vivitrol, and methadone, as well as prescribed psychiatric medication including antidepressants, mood stabilisers and antipsychotics. Confirm — especially methadone, and whether you accept controlled stimulants and benzodiazepines
Your medication, your responsibility
Kokoro is not a medical facility. We do not manage, dispense or store guests’ medication — guests keep their own medication secured in their space and take it exactly as prescribed. That independence is part of the model, and it’s also why we’re best suited to people who are stable.
Documentation
We need documentation of the prescription within 48 hours of move-in. Once it’s on file, a positive screen matching that prescription is recorded, not penalised.
Staying connected to the prescriber
We ask guests to keep their own prescriber and keep their appointments. We do not prescribe, adjust, or advise on medication — we are not clinicians and we won’t pretend to be.
Where we’re honestly the wrong level
We’re well suited to guests who are stable on their medication. If a client is initiating, titrating, or in the first unstable weeks, they need a setting with staff able to provide that oversight — call us and we’ll say so directly rather than waste your discharge date.
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, taking medication for opioid use disorder as prescribed is not current illegal drug use, and blanket exclusions of people on MAT run afoul of fair housing law. We agree with that, and we’d hold the position regardless.
Relapse
What happens if someone uses.
Nobody gets put on the street at eleven at night. That is the whole policy in one sentence, and it’s the question every case manager is really asking.
Immediate safety
Naloxone is on site and staff are trained to use it. Confirm Medical need comes before every other consideration, including the rules.
A conversation, same day
With the house manager. What happened, what’s needed, what the honest options are.
Referrer and family notified
Where a release is on file, the referring provider is told immediately — not a week later, and not by the guest. Emergency contacts per the release.
A defined plan, not a coin flip
Depending on the situation: increased testing, a return to phase one, a step up to detox or a higher level of care, or a planned discharge. Confirm your specific protocol
If someone has to leave
It happens with a destination, a ride, and their belongings. We help arrange the next placement. We do not discharge to the sidewalk, and any house that does should not be getting your referrals.
Plainly
What we are not.
Not a treatment facility
Kokoro is a recovery residence — structured housing with peer support and accountability. We are not licensed by DHCS and we don’t provide detox, clinical care, counselling or medical services, because that would require a licence we don’t hold and shouldn’t claim.
Not tied to any outpatient provider
Guests are never required to attend a particular IOP, PHP, lab or clinic as a condition of housing. If a guest arrives with a provider they like, they keep them. We have no financial arrangement with any clinical provider.
Not in the referral-payment business
We do not pay for referrals and we do not accept payment for referrals. Not a marketing arrangement, not a finder’s fee, not a bed-day kickback. Ever.
Not going to promise you an outcome
You will not find a success-rate percentage on this site. Anybody quoting you one is making it up.