Addiction doesn't discriminate. So when a friend, a loved one, is a recovering addict and wants to go to a sober house, it's a positive thing.
But the city of New London said the fact they don't know where all the sober houses are, is not. Especially when it comes to safety.
"We're concerned that some people are being taken advantage of. And more importantly that they're living in an unsafe environments," said Jeanne Milstein, director of human services for the city of New London.
That's why Milstein wants to know where each sober house in the city is.
She wants to make sure the homes are up to code, that the people battling addiction inside are not in unsafe living condition, being over charged, and have access to treatment.
Millstein said under current state law, sober houses are unregulated and many are privately owned -- the locations don't need to be reported.
Police and firefighters said they often only find out about sober houses when they're responding to an overdose.
NBC Connecticut spoke to an owner of one of the homes, who wants to remain anonymous. She believes sober houses should remain anonymous, too.
"They already have the stigma that they have a disease. They have drug addiction.... They already have that stuff working against them and then you add that they live in a known sober house. That makes it even harder," she said.
Milstein helped launch a voluntary certification program. Only three people signed up. To put that into perspective, the city knows of about 30 sober houses in New London and believes are several others they don't know about.
