Ohio HB 58: Recovery Housing
- Katie Jo Breidenbach Wooding
- May 13
- 2 min read
On May 6, 2025, OCAAR submitted opponent testimony on House Bill 58 to the Ohio House Community Revitalization Committee. While the intent behind the bill may be to safeguard the recovery community, its consequences would do the opposite, creating new barriers to recovery housing at a time when our state needs it most.
Recovery housing is one of the most frequently named priorities in our statewide listening sessions with individuals in and seeking recovery. These homes provide a safe, supportive, community-based environment for people to stabilize, rebuild, and thrive. Yet HB 58 would make it harder, not easier, for these essential resources to grow.
Why We Oppose HB 58
HB 58 introduces a certificate of need requirement for opening, expanding, or renovating recovery residences. This approach, often used in clinical and healthcare settings, is not appropriate for recovery housing, which is not clinical, is not reimbursable by Medicaid, and often operates on razor-thin margins funded by community support and resident rent payments.
Adding layers of bureaucracy will delay housing development, raise costs, and discourage small, community-based providers from serving those in need. That’s not protection—it’s obstruction.
Additionally, HB 58 proposes shifting inspection and complaint oversight to local boards. This creates the risk of inconsistent enforcement across the state and introduces political and resource-based disparities. Instead of a standardized, evidence-based approach to maintaining quality, providers could face a confusing patchwork of local policies that undermines stability.
We Support Quality—But Without Barriers
OCAAR fully supports strong standards for recovery housing. Quality and accountability are essential. But HB 58 doesn’t strike the right balance. At a time when Ohio continues to confront an overdose and addiction crisis, we should be removing barriers to recovery, not adding new ones that limit access to safe housing.
We urge lawmakers to go back to the drawing board—and this time, to include the recovery community in the conversation. We are the experts in our own lives. Good policy is made with us, not for us.
We thank the Community Revitalization Committee for considering our testimony and remain committed to lifting the voices of people in recovery across the state. If you’d like to get involved in OCAAR's advocacy work, visit the Get Involved page on our site!