Prohibits any city or town from enacting any zoning ordinance that would place restrictions on residential recovery houses that are not applicable to other residential homes.

Plain-English Summary

This bill would prevent cities and towns in Rhode Island from creating special zoning rules that single out recovery houses — residential homes where people recovering from addiction live together — and treat them differently from other ordinary homes in a neighborhood. In other words, if a regular single-family or multi-family home is allowed in a certain area, a recovery house would have to be allowed there too, under the same rules and conditions.

Currently, some municipalities have zoning ordinances that place extra restrictions on recovery houses specifically — such as limiting where they can be located, how many residents they can have, or requiring special permits that other homes don't need. This bill would make those kinds of targeted restrictions illegal at the local level across Rhode Island.

The people most directly affected are individuals in addiction recovery who rely on recovery houses as a stable, supportive place to live, as well as the organizations that operate those homes. The bill would make it easier to open and maintain recovery houses in more neighborhoods without facing local zoning barriers. Local governments and residents would also be affected, as municipalities would lose the ability to regulate recovery houses differently than they do other residential properties.

The bill has been referred to the House Municipal Government & Housing Committee, which has recommended holding it for further study, meaning it has not yet moved forward in the legislative process.