How to Open a Sober Living Home in Lincoln, NE: A 2026 Startup Guide

Opening a sober living home in Lincoln means clearing three layers of rule, and only one of them is the one most people worry about. Nebraska requires no license for a peer-run recovery home: the Health Care Facility Licensure Act reaches a home only once it provides professionally directed treatment, counseling, or supervision for more than twenty-four consecutive hours, which is what Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-423 defines as a mental health substance use treatment center.

Lincoln, by contrast, does have a use category for this exact building: a house where three or more unrelated people live together because of a shared disability is a Collaborative Living Facility under LMC 27.02.040, a conditional use in every residential district and capped at ten residents by LMC 27.62.050. The demand behind it is real and local: Lancaster County recorded 29 drug overdose deaths in 2025, up from 23 in 2024, and the January 2025 point-in-time count found 542 people experiencing homelessness in Lincoln, including 150 adults reporting chronic substance abuse.

This page covers what is specific to Lincoln: how the city code classifies the house, the lot-area and spacing math that decides how many residents a given address can hold, the Planning and Development Services counter that issues the certificate of occupancy, the local lease and purchase anchors, and the agencies that actually place residents here. Statewide rules, the licensure question in full, and the complete cost model live in the Nebraska guide below. Where this page uses a shared figure, it restates the state model rather than recalculating it, and adjusts only the two lines Lincoln actually changes.

Is Lincoln a Good Place to Open a Sober Living Home?

Yes, with one condition: the property has to be big enough on paper before it is big enough in practice. Lincoln is unusually permissive about what a recovery home is, allowing Collaborative Living Facilities in every residential district, and unusually specific about how many people may live in one, tying the count to lot area rather than bedrooms. An operator who signs a lease before running that math can end up with a six-bedroom house that the code will only let six people occupy.

Where Recovery Housing Demand Comes From in Lancaster County

Lincoln does not have one dominant referral pipeline. It has four smaller ones, and an operator who works all four fills faster than one who waits for a single agency to send people.

• Community supervision: Nebraska Probation funds sober housing directly through its Transitional Living program, and District 3A runs it out of 605 S. 10th Street.
• Problem-solving courts: Lancaster County runs an adult drug court whose applicants must live in the county, plus veterans, mental health, and treatment tracks through the County Attorney’s diversion office.
• Treatment discharge: Sixteen licensed residential facilities in the county hold 285 substance-use-capable beds, and every one of them discharges people who need somewhere structured to go next.
• The homelessness response: The All Doors Lead Home coordinated entry system assesses and prioritizes households across the Lincoln/Lancaster continuum of care.

These are the numbers a lender, a landlord, or a referral partner asks about before they take an operator seriously.

VSL’s Operating Climate Index rates Nebraska 5 out of 10 overall and ranks it 45th, with a Market Strength sub-index of 6 and a classification of lightly regulated (Foote, 2026). Market Strength is scored against a published rubric rather than measured, and it reads low for a reason: Nebraska has a small population spread thin, so most of the state cannot support a fourteen-bed house.

Lincoln is where that changes. A third of Lancaster County’s 334,049 residents would have to leave before the county looked like the rest of the state, and the county carries the treatment beds, the courts, and the coordinated entry system that turn population into referrals.

Free · 14 pagesThe Your State Sober Living Starter Kit

Most people ask whether they are allowed to open a recovery home. The better first question is whether the need and the money are there. This answers both, for your state.

• How many people need a bed, and how few beds exist
• Who actually pays the rent, and which programs are real
• What it costs to open on the purchase path and the lease path

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How to Open a Sober House in Lincoln: Step-by-Step

The statewide sequence is in the Nebraska guide; this order is Lincoln’s, and it starts with zoning because in this city the arithmetic of the lot decides the size of the business. A house is a Collaborative Living Facility the moment a third unrelated resident moves in, and the number of residents allowed after that is set by square feet of lot area, not by bedrooms. Running that calculation before making an offer is the difference between a viable house and an expensive one.

Ten steps, in the order a Lincoln operator actually meets them.

Most of the elapsed time sits in two places: closing on a property and registering with Probation.

Timelines are estimated. Two things stretch a Lincoln timeline more than anything else. An open permit left unfinaled by a previous owner can block a new permit entirely until the inspections are done, and the Probation registration runs on its own schedule with no published turnaround.

Best Neighborhoods for a Sober Living Home in Lincoln

A workable Lincoln address passes four tests, and three of them are arithmetic rather than judgment.

• Lot area: The code allows one resident per 2,250 square feet of lot in R-1, 1,500 in R-2 and R-3, 1,100 in R-4 and R-5, and 875 in the remaining residential districts (LMC 27.62.050). A 15,000 square foot R-1 lot supports six residents, whatever the house holds.
• Spacing: A Collaborative Living Facility must sit at least 1,000 feet from any other one in R-1 through R-4 and at least 500 feet in the other residential districts, measured lot line to lot line.
• Transit: Residents arriving through the courts and coordinated entry frequently have no car, so a StarTran route within walking distance is a practical requirement rather than a nicety, and no route runs on Sunday.
• Housing stock: The house needs bedrooms that already meet the 70 square foot minimum and egress openings that already work, which in Lincoln points at the older neighborhoods with large homes and away from finished basements of unknown provenance.

Five areas are worth a search in Lincoln. Housing age and stock come from the city’s own subarea and redevelopment plans, and the routes come from StarTran.

Four house features decide it anywhere in Lincoln.

• Lot size before bedroom count: Pull the parcel’s square footage from the county property record and divide before scheduling a showing.
• Bedrooms that already comply: Every sleeping room needs 70 square feet, seven feet in any direction, and a seven-foot ceiling, and a basement sleeping room needs its own egress opening of 5.7 square feet (LMC 20.12.300, 20.12.312).
• A clean permit history: Run the address through the city’s building permit search and the occupancy permit search before the inspection, not after.
• Parking that exists: Off-street parking is what neighbors notice first, and it is the objection that shows up in every Lincoln accommodation file.

Lincoln’s zoning jurisdiction reaches three miles past the city limits (Planning and Development Services), so an address in the countryside outside town is often still inside Lincoln’s rules. Confirm which jurisdiction an address sits in before assuming a county reading is the one that applies.

Who Regulates Sober Living Homes in Lincoln?

No single agency regulates sober living homes in Lincoln, which is why operators get contradictory answers depending on who they call first. The state licenses treatment, not housing. The city controls the use of the building, the building itself, and the fire code. The county courts and the state probation office control most of the money. Nobody certifies.

A sober living home is a shared residence where people in recovery live together under house rules, pay their own rent, and receive no treatment on site. That last clause is what keeps the house outside state licensure: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-413 lists the facility types Nebraska licenses and a recovery residence is not among them, while § 71-423 draws the line at professionally directed counseling, supervision, or treatment provided for more than twenty-four consecutive hours.

Lincoln’s own code reaches the same house from the other direction, defining a Collaborative Living Facility in LMC 27.02.040 as a structure where at least three unrelated people live together to accommodate a shared disability.

The short version for an operator:

• State license: Not required for a peer-run home, and the line you must not cross is providing treatment on site.
• City license: Lincoln has no general business license. Zoning approval and a certificate of occupancy are what you need instead.
• Certification: There is no certifying body in Nebraska. Probation’s service definition is the standard that functions like one.
• Referrals: Registration with Probation opens the only per diem in the city, and the rest is relationship work with discharge planners.

Licensing is the easy part in Lincoln, and most operators spend their worry there. Zoning is what actually constrains the business, because it sets the resident count before the first lease is signed.

Lincoln Zoning Laws for Sober Living Homes

Lincoln has no sober living ordinance, no moratorium, and no registry aimed at recovery housing. What it has instead is a named use category that captures these homes precisely, a resident cap of ten, a lot-area formula, and a spacing rule, all of them in the zoning code and all of them applied administratively.

A dated search of the Lincoln Municipal Code, the Planning Commission’s staff reports and agenda packets for 2025 and 2026, and the City Council’s minutes and agenda archive found no sober-living-specific ordinance or resolution as of September 22, 2026.

How the Lincoln Municipal Code Treats a Sober Living Home

Lincoln is one of the few cities that names this use rather than leaving operators to argue by analogy. Three definitions decide how a house is classified, and the third unrelated resident is what moves it from one to the next.

• Family, LMC 27.02.070: Defined as one or more persons related by blood, marriage, or adoption living as a single housekeeping unit, plus not more than two persons who are unrelated. A recovery home passes this only at three total residents.
• Collaborative Living Facility, LMC 27.02.040: Defined as a structure in which not less than three persons unrelated by blood, marriage, or adoption reside for the purpose of accommodating their shared disability. This is the category a sober living home falls into.
• Group home, LMC 27.02.080: Reserved for a building licensed or approved by the state where more than three but fewer than sixteen disabled persons reside while receiving therapy or counseling. A home that provides no therapy is not a group home in Lincoln, and claiming to be one invites the licensure question.
• Where it is allowed: Collaborative Living Facilities are a conditional use in AG, AGR, R-1 through R-8, R-T, O-1, O-3, B-4, and B-5, and are not permitted by right in any residential district (LMC 27.06.080). Conditional here is administrative: LMC 27.62.020 has Building and Safety verify the conditions are met before issuing the permit or certificate of occupancy, with no hearing and no council vote.
• How many residents: Ten maximum in any allowed residential district, further limited to one person per 2,250 square feet of lot area in AG, AGR, and R-1, 1,500 in R-2 and R-3, 1,100 in R-4 and R-5, and 875 in the remaining residential districts (LMC 27.62.050).

The city’s own files show how this plays out. In a staff report dated March 5, 2026, planning staff applied the R-7 formula to a 3,356 square foot lot at 1035 S. 12th Street and arrived at a maximum of three unrelated residents, against an operator asking for eight (Misc. #26001). The house was not the constraint. The lot was.

What the Six-or-Fewer Rule Does and Does Not Do in Lincoln

Operators arrive quoting a six-or-fewer rule they read about in another state, expecting Nebraska to guarantee that a home of six unrelated people is treated as a family anywhere. Nebraska has no such statute, and Lincoln’s own threshold sits at three, not six.

• Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-413: Lists the facility types Nebraska licenses and does not include recovery residences, which is a statement about licensure, not about zoning.
• Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-423: Defines the treatment center a home becomes if it provides professionally directed services for more than twenty-four consecutive hours. Staying outside this definition is what keeps a home unlicensed, and it does nothing for zoning.
• Unlicensed homes and the city code: No Nebraska statute overrides Lincoln’s family definition or its resident cap. The state’s own planning-code framework leaves the classification to the city, and Lincoln’s answer is LMC 27.06.080 and 27.62.050.

The protection comes from disability status instead. People in recovery from substance use disorder are a protected class under the federal Fair Housing Act, and Lincoln has its own reasonable accommodation process in LMC Chapter 1.28 under which the Planning Commission holds a hearing and recommends and the City Council decides. Nebraska’s own fair housing law at Neb. Rev. Stat. § 20-318

is enforced by the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission and reaches zoning and use-permit decisions. Operators who understand requesting reasonable accommodation before they need it, and the shape of sober living zoning protections generally, are the ones who ask for more residents and get them.

The Oxford House Accommodation Files and What They Tell an Operator

Lincoln’s live regulatory activity on recovery housing is not an ordinance. It is a run of individual reasonable accommodation requests, each with a file number and a date, and together they are the clearest available record of what this city will actually approve.

The most recent is Misc. #26001, a March 5, 2026 staff report on Oxford House-Hansen Manor at 1035 S. 12th Street in R-7, asking for eight unrelated residents and for the four required parking spaces to be reduced to zero, with staff recommending approval subject to conditions. The one before it was Misc. #25010, a July 10, 2025 report on Oxford House-Orison at 1007 S. 16th Street asking that ten unrelated persons be permitted to live together as a family, heard by the Planning Commission on August 20, 2025.

1. Treatment as the functional equivalent of a family, above the two-unrelated-person ceiling in the family definition
2. A resident count above what the district’s lot-area formula would otherwise allow
3. Relief from the parking requirement of one space per two residents

What did not change on either date matters more than what did. Neither file amended the text of the family definition, the Collaborative Living Facility definition, the lot-area formula, or the parking ratio, and the conditions attached make each grant specific to one address and one operator, not transferable and not running with the land. A new operator buying that same house inherits none of it. The 2020 city text amendment that operators sometimes cite covers transitional living facilities affiliated with alternatives to imprisonment, which is a different use category and not recovery housing.

• Oxford House-C v. City of St. Louis, 77 F.3d 249 (8th Cir. 1996):The governing circuit decision, which upheld an eight-person occupancy cap for group homes in single-family zones and held that failing to apply for a variance was fatal to the accommodation claim, because a city need not bypass its own procedures.
• Developmental Services of Nebraska v. City of Lincoln (D. Neb. 2006):A district court decision about this city, which found Lincoln’s spacing requirements and family definition rationally related to a legitimate purpose and not facially discriminatory, while letting the reasonable accommodation claim proceed to trial.
• Lincoln’s own accommodation record, 2022 to 2026: The city granted fourteen unrelated residents at 1923 B Street in 2022, considered ten at 1007 S. 16th Street in 2025, and considered eight at 1035 S. 12th Street in 2026 (Misc. #26001). The process works, and it is used.

Three moves follow from all of this.

1. Design the house to the lot-area number first, and treat anything above it as an accommodation request rather than an assumption
2. Where more residents are needed, file the LMC Chapter 1.28 request and go through the Planning Commission and City Council, because the Eighth Circuit has held that skipping the city’s own process sinks the claim
3. Budget time for a public hearing, and bring the neighbor-relations plan to it, because the parking and concentration objections in these files are the ones that recur

Lincoln Fire and Building Code Rules for Sober Living Homes

A Lincoln sober living home is a Group R-3 building, and the count that decides whether it stays one is the number of residents receiving care, not the number of people in the house. Three points decide what the building and fire departments ask for.

• The care-count line: R-3 covers congregate living for sixteen or fewer occupants and care facilities for five or fewer, and LMC 20.06.260 lets a care facility of five or fewer in a single-family dwelling comply with the residential code instead of the building code. A home characterized as providing care to six or more people leaves R-3 for R-4, which closes that door and brings sprinkler requirements with it (2021 IBC 903.2.8). A peer-run home providing no care is analyzed on the congregate-living branch.
• The certificate of occupancy: No change in the use or occupancy classification of a property is lawful until a new certificate is issued (LMC 27.77.010), and the same section treats the absence of a certificate for a claimed prior nonconforming use as evidence that the use never lawfully existed. A converted house with a care-facility history and no paperwork puts the burden on the buyer.
• The fire department’s scope: The fire code adopted at LMC Chapter 19.03 is administered with the fire chief as the fire code official, and the State Fire Marshal has delegated its authority inside Lincoln to local personnel. The State Fire Marshal’s own inspection programs all attach to licensed facility types, so an unlicensed shared home falls outside them.

Alarms and egress are where first-time operators fall short, and none of these requirements depends on who lives in the house. They apply to every dwelling in Lincoln.

Nobody is coming to check. A single-family dwelling in Lincoln triggers no routine inspection, and the certificate of occupancy question surfaces only when a permit is pulled or a complaint is filed, which means the operator carries the burden voluntarily or carries it later at a worse moment. Run the occupancy math before the house opens rather than after, and determining maximum occupancy is a calculation worth doing with the code sections in front of you.

How Much Does It Cost to Open a Sober House in Lincoln?

The Nebraska reference model puts the all-in cost of opening between $30,442 and $104,151, split as $30,442 to $48,907 on the lease path and $85,686 to $104,151 on the purchase path. Lincoln changes two of those inputs and leaves the rest alone. The lease deposit moves because the metro fair market rent is higher than the statewide modeled lease, and the down payment moves because Lincoln’s median sale price is higher than the statewide basis. Everything else, from furnishings to the operating reserve, holds at the state figures.

Two swaps turn the statewide model into a Lincoln budget.

• Purchase path: Replacing the state model’s $60,390 down payment with Lincoln’s $66,938 moves the purchase path to an estimated $92,234 to $110,699 all in. That still excludes closing costs, any repair the inspection turns up, and the first mortgage payment.
• Lease path: The lease path barely moves, from $30,442 to $48,907 up to an estimated $31,041 to $49,506, because only the three-month deposit changes. Test any landlord’s quote against the FY2027 fair market rent of $1,703 for three bedrooms and $1,915 for four, and against the small-area rents HUD publishes by ZIP code, which run from $1,430 in 68502 and 68510 to $2,040 in 68516 for a three-bedroom.

Lincoln has no grant that helps an operator open. What it has is one program that pays for beds once the house is running.

• Nebraska Probation Transitional Living: Pays a per diem for up to 45 days for people under supervision who are assessed high risk, housing unstable, and unable to self-pay, at a rate set by contract rather than published (service definition, revised February 1, 2026).
• Region 5 Systems contracts: Fund the licensed clinical tier for southeast Nebraska, halfway house and supportive living, rather than non-clinical sober housing (adult services).

None of this is startup money. The Probation per diem arrives after a bed is filled by a referral that only comes after registration, Region 5’s contracts are for licensed services a peer-run home does not provide, and Nebraska’s dedicated recovery housing grant program is restricted to sites inside Omaha city limits. Nebraska Medicaid pays for behavioral health services and never for room and board. Plan to open on capital and let the per diem improve the operating year, not the other way round.

Is a Sober Living Home Profitable in Lincoln?

Yes, on the same condition that governs the model everywhere: occupancy. The Nebraska reference model runs a fourteen-bed house with twelve revenue beds at $155 a week, producing $6,802 in monthly revenue against $3,450 in operating costs, for $3,352 of net operating income before the owner’s labor, a 49% margin, and break-even at roughly 46% occupancy.

Lincoln changes exactly two inputs in that model: the mortgage, because houses cost more here than the statewide basis, and the property tax, because Lancaster County’s bill is higher than the state median.

That score describes Nebraska as a whole, and Lincoln pulls it in both directions at once: a stronger referral base and a deeper rental market on one side, a higher entry price and a higher property tax bill on the other. The table below restates the state model line for line and scales only the two property lines, holding revenue, bed count, and every other operating expense exactly where the state model puts them.

The Lincoln column is an estimate, not a quote. It holds revenue, bed price, vacancy, and every operating expense at the state model’s figures and scales only the mortgage and the property tax, which moves monthly costs up by $177 and the margin down from 49% to an estimated 47%. Three local factors will move that margin further than the mortgage does.

• Referral registration: Beds filled by Probation’s Transitional Living per diem fill faster and empty slower than private-pay beds, and the registration takes weeks. An unregistered house carries the same mortgage at lower occupancy.
• The Sunday transit gap: Residents who cannot reach work on Sunday lose jobs, and residents who lose jobs stop paying rent. A house on a route with weekend service holds occupancy better than the rent difference suggests.
• The lot-area cap: A house limited to six residents by lot area cannot reach the model’s twelve revenue beds at all, and no amount of good operating fixes that. This is the reason the zoning math belongs before the offer.

No real property matches a reference model, and finding out how far off yours sits takes a few minutes.

How to Get Residents for a Sober Living Home in Lincoln

Nebraska Probation controls the only publicly funded per diem for non-clinical sober housing in Lincoln, and Region 5 Systems controls the clinical residential contracts. Everything else arrives through hospital and treatment discharge, the courts, and the coordinated entry system. Three doors open first.

• CenterPointe Crisis Response, (402) 475-6695: The local 24-hour line for southeast Nebraska for mental health, suicidal, and substance use emergencies, with walk-in crisis counseling weekdays at 2202 S. 11th Street (Region 5 Systems).
• Nebraska Probation Transitional Living: Level 1 is sober housing only, Level 2 adds employment and financial services, and Probation funds up to 45 days for people under court-ordered supervision who are assessed high risk and cannot self-pay. The referral comes from a probation officer, and the house has to be registered first (Registered Service Providers).
• Standards in place of certification: With no certifying body in Nebraska, what a referral partner checks is Probation’s own service definition: a paid director, awake or on-call staffing by level, staff who are not themselves under supervision, and documented compliance with local municipal codes (Transitional Living Level 1). Meeting it is the closest thing Lincoln has to a credential, and the NARR affiliate certification process used in other states is worth understanding as the standard operators here are measured against informally.

Twenty organizations, public agencies first because they control funded placement, then the hospitals and nonprofits whose discharge planners decide where someone goes on a Tuesday afternoon.

Neither fellowship refers formally, and both are how a large share of residents actually find a home. Lincoln Central Service Office for Alcoholics Anonymous runs a 24-hour line at (402) 438-5214, and the Southeast Nebraska Area of Narcotics Anonymous runs a 24-hour helpline at 888-347-4446. Meeting secretaries and sponsors pass along the names of houses they trust, which is earned over months rather than requested.

If you are reading this because you or someone close to you needs a bed rather than a business plan, the next step is shorter than the rest of this page.

Common Mistakes When Opening a Sober House in Lincoln

These are the errors that show up in Lincoln homes struggling in their first year, and every one of them happens before the house opens.

• Signing before dividing: Making an offer on a six-bedroom house without dividing the parcel’s lot area by the district’s per-person figure. A small R-7 lot caps the house at three residents whatever the floor plan says, which is the exact finding in the city’s March 2026 staff report.
• Assuming a six-or-fewer rule protects the house: Nebraska has no such statute, and Lincoln’s family definition stops at two unrelated people. The third resident makes the house a Collaborative Living Facility, and the protections that matter come from disability status and the city’s own accommodation process, not from a resident count.
• Leasing per bed without reading Chapter 5.38: Per-bed agreements with no cooking facilities in the rooms can create three or more rooming units, turning the house into a rental dwelling that needs a permit, annual inspection, and a certificate of compliance at sale.
• Buying a house with an open permit: An earlier owner’s unfinaled permit lets the building official refuse further permits and inspections until it is closed, which can hold up the certificate of occupancy the change of use requires. The permit history is public and free to search.
• Pricing from statewide numbers: The Nebraska model’s lease and purchase basis both sit below Lincoln’s, so a budget built on the statewide figures understates the down payment by roughly $6,500 and the monthly mortgage by roughly $164.
• Waiting to register with Probation: The only per diem in the city requires an agency application, individual staff applications, and a portal listing before the first referral. Operators who start that after opening pay the mortgage through the wait.
• Ignoring parking and neighbors: Parking relief is the request in Lincoln’s accommodation files, and neighbor objections are what make those hearings long. A neighbor-relations plan written before anyone complains is worth more than a good argument afterward.

The Nebraska book and the Blueprint carry the templates, the checklists, and the operating detail this page points at but does not reproduce.

Two ways to build

Start with the book. Go all the way with the Blueprint.

The book gives you the map to open a home. When you’re ready to launch, certify, and sustain, the Blueprint is the full playbook covering funding, legal, insurance, and operations.

Get the bookExplore the Blueprint

Frequently Asked Questions About Opening a Sober House in Lincoln

Your Lincoln Sober House Startup Checklist

Every item here is covered somewhere above, and none of them is optional in Lincoln.

Four evergreen guides cover the operating ground this page hands off.

How VSL Helps You Open a Sober House in Lincoln

Vanderburgh Sober Living charters independently operated recovery homes into a cooperative network, where the operator keeps ownership of the business and gains the brand, the operating standards, and the support of the Chartered Operator community. Most Chartered Operators opened their first home with no prior experience in recovery housing.

The help lands on exactly the points this page kept returning to: reading a lot-area calculation before an offer, deciding whether a house clears the code without expensive work, writing house rules and intake policy that hold up when a referral partner asks for them, and building a standards case in a state with no certifying body to point at.

There are two routes into it. The self-guided route is the Launchpad and the Chartered Operator path, where an operator works through the startup sequence on their own timeline with the network’s materials and community behind them. The done-with-you route is the Mastery Program, which is structured coaching through startup, standards, and the first year of operating. If you have a specific Lincoln address in mind, or you are weighing a lease against a purchase here, that is a conversation worth having before you sign: tell us what you are looking at and someone will walk through it with you.

Research & Sources

1. Foote, H. T. (2026). Vanderburgh Sober Living Operating Climate Index, 2026 Edition. Vanderburgh Sober Living. https://www.vanderburghhouse.com/research/operating-climate-index-2026/
2. Nebraska Legislature. (n.d.). Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-423: Mental health substance use treatment center, defined. https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=71-423
3. City of Lincoln. (n.d.). Lincoln Municipal Code Chapter 27.02: Definitions. https://online.encodeplus.com/regs/lincoln-ne/doc-viewer.aspx?tocid=001.028.002
4. City of Lincoln. (n.d.). Lincoln Municipal Code Chapter 27.62: Conditional Uses. https://online.encodeplus.com/regs/lincoln-ne/doc-viewer.aspx?tocid=001.028.040
5. National Center for Health Statistics. (2026). Provisional county-level drug overdose death counts. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/prov-county-drug-overdose.htm
6. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2025). Continuum of care homeless populations and subpopulations report: NE-502 Lincoln/Lancaster County CoC. HUD Exchange. https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_PopSub_CoC_NE-502-2025_NE_2025.pdf
7. Nebraska Judicial Branch. (n.d.). District 3A probation office, Lincoln. https://nebraskajudicial.gov/probation/probation-offices-reporting-centers/3a-district-office-lincoln
8. Lancaster County, Nebraska. (n.d.). Adult drug court. https://www.lancaster.ne.gov/193/Adult-Drug-Court
9. Lancaster County, Nebraska. (n.d.). Adult diversion services and problem-solving programs. https://www.lancaster.ne.gov/181/Adult-Diversion-Services
10. Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health. (2026, August 14). State of Nebraska roster: Mental health and substance use treatment centers. https://dhhs.ne.gov/licensure/Documents/MHSU%20Roster.pdf
11. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Center on Children, Families, and the Law. (n.d.). All Doors Lead Home coordinated entry. https://community-services.unl.edu/coordinated-entry
12. Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department. (n.d.). Overdose prevention. City of Lincoln. https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/City/Departments/Health-Department/Health-Promotion-Outreach/OD
13. Nebraska Judicial Branch. (n.d.). Quick look: Transitional living. https://nebraskajudicial.gov/sites/default/files/QLtl.pdf
14. City of Lincoln Transportation and Utilities. (n.d.). StarTran bus routes. https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/City/Departments/LTU/StarTran/Routes
15. City of Lincoln Transportation and Utilities. (2025). StarTran transfer center relocation. https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/City/Departments/LTU/StarTran/Transfer-Relocation
16. Federal Transit Administration. (2024). National Transit Database annual agency profile: City of Lincoln (StarTran). U.S. Department of Transportation. https://www.transit.dot.gov/sites/fta.dot.gov/files/transit_agency_profile_doc/2024/70001.pdf
17. City of Lincoln and Lancaster County. (n.d.). Lincoln/Lancaster County GIS viewer. https://gis.lincoln.ne.gov/apps/gisviewer/
18. Nebraska Secretary of State. (n.d.). Business services: Forms and fee information. https://sos.nebraska.gov/business-services/forms-and-fee-information
19. Nebraska Legislature. (n.d.). Neb. Rev. Stat. § 21-193: Limited liability company; notice of organization; publication. https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=21-193
20. City of Lincoln Finance Department, City Treasurer. (n.d.). Occupation taxes. https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/City/Departments/Finance/City-Treasurer/Occupation-Taxes
21. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2026, September 1). Fair market rents for the housing choice voucher program, fiscal year 2027. Federal Register, 91 FR. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-09-01/html/2026-17891.htm
22. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research. (2026). Fiscal year 2027 fair market rents. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr/fmr2027/FY27_FMRs.xlsx
23. REALTORS Association of Lincoln and Great Plains Regional MLS. (2026, August). Lincoln area monthly housing statistics. https://gprmlsdocs.com/stats/2026/lincoln_8.pdf
24. City of Lincoln Planning and Development Services. (n.d.). Adopted building and fire codes. https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/City/Departments/PDS/Building-Safety/Codes
25. City of Lincoln. (n.d.). Lincoln Municipal Code Chapter 27.77: Certificates of Occupancy. https://online.encodeplus.com/regs/lincoln-ne/doc-viewer.aspx?tocid=001.028.050
26. National Alliance for Recovery Residences. (n.d.). Affiliates. https://narronline.org/affiliates/
27. Nebraska Judicial Branch, Office of Probation Administration. (2026, February 1). Adult service definition: Transitional living, Level 1. https://nebraskajudicial.gov/sites/default/files/Probation/servicedef/adult_sd/Transitional_Living_-_Level_1_UPDATE_2.1.26.pdf
28. Nebraska Judicial Branch. (n.d.). Registered service providers. https://nebraskajudicial.gov/probation/registered-service-providers
29. State of Nebraska. (n.d.). Nebraska transitional living portal. https://transitionalliving.nebraska.gov/
30. Lincoln/Lancaster County Planning Department. (2025). University Place subarea plan. City of Lincoln. https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/planning/long-range-planning/university-place/uni-place-subarea-plan-final.pdf
31. City of Lincoln Urban Development Department. (2015). Havelock redevelopment plan. https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/urban-development/redevelopment/havredev.pdf
32. City of Lincoln Urban Development Department. (2019). North 27th Street corridor and environs redevelopment plan. https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/urban-development/redevelopment/n27corredev.pdf
33. City of Lincoln Urban Development Department. (2020). Lincoln affordable housing coordinated action plan. https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/2/urban-development/lincoln-affordable-housing-coordinated-action-plan.pdf
34. Lancaster County Treasurer. (n.d.). Property information search and tax payment. https://app.lincoln.ne.gov/aspx/cnty/cto/
35. City of Lincoln. (n.d.). Lincoln Municipal Code Chapter 20.12: Residential Building Code. https://online.encodeplus.com/regs/lincoln-ne/doc-viewer.aspx?tocid=001.021.004
36. City of Lincoln. (n.d.). Building permit search. https://app.lincoln.ne.gov/aspx/city/buildperm/default.aspx
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41. City of Lincoln. (n.d.). Lincoln Municipal Code Chapter 27.06: Use Groups and Use Tables. https://online.encodeplus.com/regs/lincoln-ne/doc-viewer.aspx?tocid=001.028.004
42. City of Lincoln. (n.d.). Lincoln Municipal Code Chapter 19.03: Fire Code. https://online.encodeplus.com/regs/lincoln-ne/doc-viewer.aspx?tocid=001.020.001
43. City of Lincoln Planning and Development Services. (n.d.). Apartment licenses. https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/City/Departments/PDS/Building-Safety/Residential-Rental-and-Property-Maintenance/Apartment-Licenses
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47. Lincoln/Lancaster County Planning Department. (2025, July 10). Staff report, Misc. #25010: Reasonable accommodation, 1007 S. 16th Street. City of Lincoln. https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/planning/bampc/planning-commission/staff-reports-amp-minutes/2025/misc25010staffreport.pdf
48. Lincoln/Lancaster County Planning Department. (2026, March 5). Staff report, Misc. #26001: Reasonable accommodation, 1035 S. 12th Street. City of Lincoln. https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/planning/bampc/planning-commission/staff-reports/2026/misc26001staffreport.pdf
49. Nebraska Legislature. (n.d.). Neb. Rev. Stat. § 20-318: Nebraska Fair Housing Act, definitions. https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=20-318
50. Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission. (2025). Housing law. https://neoc.nebraska.gov/sites/default/files/2025-09/HOUSING%20Law%20full%20page%208-25.pdf
51. Lincoln/Lancaster County Planning Commission. (2025, August 20). Agenda packet. City of Lincoln. https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/planning/bampc/planning-commission/agenda-packets/2025/fullag082025.pdf
52. Lincoln/Lancaster County Planning Department. (2020). Draft changes to Title 27: Zoning for transitional living facilities. City of Lincoln. https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/planning/development-review/transitional/draft-zoning-changes.pdf
53. Oxford House-C v. City of St. Louis, 77 F.3d 249 (8th Cir. 1996). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/713080/oxford-house-c-an-unincorporated-association-oxford-house-inc-a/
54. Developmental Services of Nebraska, Inc. v. City of Lincoln (D. Neb. 2006). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2153469/developmental-services-of-neb-v-city-of-lincoln/
55. City of Lincoln. (n.d.). Lincoln Municipal Code Chapter 20.06: Lincoln Building Code. https://online.encodeplus.com/regs/lincoln-ne/doc-viewer.aspx?tocid=001.021.002
56. International Code Council. (2021). 2021 International Building Code: Use of fire sprinklers and alarms. https://www.iccsafe.org/wp-content/uploads/Session-7-and-9-2021-IBC-Use-of-Fire-Sprinklers-and-Alarms.pdf
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58. City of Lincoln. (n.d.). Lincoln Municipal Code Title 21: Housing. https://online.encodeplus.com/regs/lincoln-ne/doc-viewer.aspx?tocid=001.022
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62. Missouri Economic Research and Information Center. (n.d.). Cost of living data series. Missouri Department of Economic Development. https://meric.mo.gov/data/cost-living-data-series
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64. Nebraska Department of Economic Development. (n.d.). Recovery housing grants application. https://opportunity.nebraska.gov/nebraska-department-of-economic-development-opens-application-for-recovery-housing-grants/
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66. U.S. Census Bureau. (2024). American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25103: Mortgage status by median real estate taxes paid, Lancaster County, Nebraska. https://data.census.gov/api/access/data/table?t=Financial%20Characteristics&g=050XX00US31109&y=2024&tid=ACSDT5Y2024.B25103
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76. CHI Health. (n.d.). CHI Health St. Elizabeth. https://www.chihealth.com/locations/st-elizabeth
77. The Bridge Behavioral Health. (n.d.). The Bridge Behavioral Health. https://thebridgenebraska.org/
78. CenterPointe. (n.d.). CenterPointe. https://centerpointe.org/
79. People’s City Mission. (n.d.). People’s City Mission. https://www.pcmlincoln.org/
80. Matt Talbot Kitchen & Outreach. (n.d.). Matt Talbot Kitchen & Outreach. https://www.mtko.org/
81. Family Service Lincoln. (n.d.). Family Service Lincoln. https://www.familyservicelincoln.org/
82. Community Action Partnership of Lancaster and Saunders Counties. (n.d.). Community Action Partnership. https://www.communityactionatwork.org/
83. Friendship Home. (n.d.). Friendship Home. https://friendshiphome.org/
84. CEDARS. (n.d.). CEDARS. https://www.cedarskids.org/
85. Released and Restored. (n.d.). Released and Restored. https://www.releasedandrestored.org/
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87. Southeast Nebraska Area of Narcotics Anonymous. (n.d.). Southeast Nebraska Area of Narcotics Anonymous. https://sena-na.net/