Faith Has a Place Here: Setting the Record Straight on Recovery Housing Certification in Tennessee

Lately, a few strange claims have been making the rounds. They start as whispers, then snowball into half-truths. One of the loudest? TN-ARR doesn’t certify faith-based recovery homes.

Let’s be clear. That assumption is not just false; it’s backwards. Faith has always had a place in recovery housing, including within many TN-ARR certified organizations across Tennessee.

Certification isn’t about what you believe. It’s about how you operate. It’s about safety, accountability, and alignment with a model that’s bigger than any single philosophy: the social model of recovery. Our mission has always been clear: to ensure every person in recovery has access to a safe, ethical, and supportive home, regardless of faith tradition.

The noise we’re hearing lately isn’t about theology. It’s about territory. As new certifiers appear and agencies begin to position themselves ahead of Tennessee’s new recovery residence certification amendment taking effect on January 1, 2026, misinformation has become a tool for distraction. So, it’s time to put the facts back in order.

The Social Model Is the Operating System

The social model is the operating system of legitimate recovery housing. It is resident driven, peer-led, responsibility focused and deeply embedded in community. It is what makes a house a recovery residence and not just a shared address. Strength-based lived experience, participatory governance, and mutual aid are its core mechanics.

This is not TN-ARR’s invention. It is the foundation of the entire field.

The National Alliance for Recovery Residences (NARR) describes the heart of every recovery residence as a social model environment where personal and collective responsibility for the safety and health of the community are the engine of change.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), recovery housing is an essential recovery support and recommends that all residences use social model principles to build cultures of kindness, trust, belonging, and peer role modeling.   

SAMHSA’s “Best Practices for Recovery Housing,” Best Practice #3 states, “Incorporate the Principles of the Social Model Approach.” (p.7).   Further, SAMHSA makes it clear that “All recovery housing approaches are characterized by alcohol- and drug-free living environments that are grounded in the Social Model of Recovery…” (Best Practices for Recovery Housing, p.9 -- SAMHSA). 

The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) recognizes recovery residences as “community programs rooted in the social recovery model and operated in home-like, recovery supportive settings that provide opportunities to learn and practice interpersonal and life skills.”

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), through its Recovery Housing Program guidance, acknowledges peer-oriented, non-clinical models like NARR’s as distinct from both treatment and general supportive housing.

The National Council for Mental Wellbeing is equally clear, stating that recovery housing is peer based and typically peer led, helping people relearn daily living, rebuild social connections, and engage meaningfully in community recovery.

Across every major authority, the verdict is unanimous. The social model is not a niche concept. It is the foundation on which quality recovery housing is built and sustained.

What TN-ARR Actually Certifies

Here is the part the rumor spreaders skip. TN-ARR certifies any recovery residence that meets the national standards, whether faith based or secular.

Homes built on faith traditions that operate within NARR’s ethical framework, protect resident rights, maintain peer accountability, and avoid clinical practice without licensure are every bit as certifiable as non-religious homes. TN-ARR’s current roster already includes certified organizations that are openly faith based, as well as others that integrate faith components such as Bible study, prayer meetings, or ministry partnerships into a broader recovery supportive environment. These elements coexist naturally alongside evidence-based routines and peer governance within a framework that emphasizes safety, structure, and resident empowerment.

Faith-based recovery homes have the same standing under federal law as secular ones. The Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act protect them equally, so long as participation in faith activities is voluntary and the home operates within ethical and safety standards.

A residence may freely express faith within its program so long as faith complements, rather than replaces, the peer led structure that defines recovery housing. TN-ARR’s standards protect that balance by ensuring leadership remains grounded in lived experience, accountability, and mutual support.

One certified director described it simply: “Our faith is the heart, but standards are the backbone.” Their homes hold prayer meetings and Bible studies just like any other faith community, but they also conduct resident meetings, uphold governance policies, and meet every safety and ethics requirement in the TN-ARR certification process.

Certification is not a judgment on mission or message; it is a verification of function. Does the home operate safely? Is it peer oriented? Is it transparent, ethical, and resident centered? Those are some of the questions TN-ARR asks.

If NARR affiliates nationwide excluded faith-based organizations, as the rumor implies, they would be violating federal protections under the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The entire system was built to prevent that kind of discrimination. Faith is not the issue. Quality is.

The Real Problem: Self-Certification and False Equivalents

Here is the elephant in the room. A few organizations have recently begun calling themselves certifying bodies. They design websites, print certificates, and declare themselves authorities, often to imply parity with TN-ARR or NARR.

That is like a student grading their own final exam.

Certification means external verification by a neutral body operating under transparent, nationally aligned standards. TN-ARR is the only organization in Tennessee authorized by the National Alliance for Recovery Residences (NARR) to conduct that process. Every other name on a “certified by” list may have good intentions, but without that national framework, the word “certified” loses meaning.

This confusion is not harmless. It creates the illusion of oversight where none exists, misleads residents and courts, and destabilizes legitimate operators. A case manager, probation officer, or parent might see the word certified and assume safety, when in fact no vetting procedures or ethics review ever occurred.

It also opens the door to exploitation. When anyone can print their own credential, bad actors slip in under the same banner as those doing things right. The result is predictable: the safe environments get diluted, the public gets confused, and people in recovery pay the price.

TN-ARR’s certification data, grievance procedures, and operator directory are public, transparent, and regularly updated. Self-declared agencies may not provide that same level of accountability. TN-ARR’s certification process is also recognized by local courts, correctional agencies, and recovery networks that rely on verified listings to ensure resident safety and program integrity.

The difference between a TN-ARR certified residence and a self-certified one is not paperwork; it is accountability. TN-ARR certification requires annual inspections, resident rights compliance, grievance procedures, operator training, and adherence to the NARR Code of Ethics. The print your own models require none of that.

So, the question is not, “Is there choice?”It is, “Is there integrity?”

Faith, Facts, and the Future

Let us return to where this started. Faith is not the problem. Confusion is.

Faith communities have always played a vital role in recovery, from Alcoholics Anonymous’ spiritual foundations to church sponsored ministries that provide compassion when no one else will. The social model does not exclude that; it depends on it. Mutual aid, service, and moral accountability are its foundation.

Some confuse neutrality with exclusion, assuming that faith-based programs should stand apart from public recognition. In reality, separation of church and state means government cannot impose or deny legitimacy based on religion. TN-ARR’s certification process applies the same objective standards to every residence, ensuring equal opportunity and accountability without regard to spiritual orientation.

The problem is not faith in recovery housing. The problem is false assumptions and fractured messaging that erode trust in the entire field. When misinformation spreads, residents lose options, courts hesitate to refer, and funders back away. Everyone loses.

TN-ARR’s mission is to keep recovery housing grounded in what works: standards, ethics, transparency, and peer leadership. Those principles leave room for faith, science, and humanity to coexist, as they always have.

As we move into 2026, Tennessee has a choice to make. We can build on what is proven and unify around a nationally aligned certification system, or we can keep dividing ourselves into camps defined by rumor, politics, or personality. One path leads to progress. The other leads to noise.

Faith belongs here, but so do facts.

Recovery housing is built on integrity, not ideology, and Tennessee’s recovery community deserves nothing less. Our state can lead the nation in ethical, inclusive recovery housing, but only if we stay rooted in truth, standards, and shared purpose.

Marlana Smartt

TN-ARR Advocacy Committee Co-Chair