With just 15 minutes left in the legislative session, the state Senate on Thursday unanimously passed a bill that encourages sober home operators to certify their homes.

House Bill No. 5149 also passed the House with bipartisan support on Monday. Only state Rep. Roland Lemar, D-New Haven, voted against it.

The bill makes it so operators who voluntarily certify their homes can be listed on the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services’ website. Per the bill, only certification from the National Alliance for Recovery Residences or another DMHAS-approved organization will qualify a home.

The operators also must stock at least two doses of an opioid overdose-reversal drug such as naloxone in their homes, train residents on how to use it and tell DMHAS each week how many beds they have available.

The bill further requires operators to state on their websites that sober homes are voluntary living situations that don’t provide substance use disorder treatment. Under the bill, those who mislead tenants could be charged with engaging in unfair trade practices.

The hope is that people will be more likely to choose homes that are on the DMHAS list, which will incentivize operators to seek certification. That in turn could make those who run shady sober houses less likely to succeed in the state.

Sober homes aren’t subject to state regulations because they don’t provide treatment, and their tenants, considered disabled, are protected by the federal Fair Housing and Americans with Disabilities acts. That creates a tricky space for state officials, who want those in recovery to be safe but also don’t want to discriminate against them by targeting their housing or exposing their disease.

“One of the problems with a registry is that we’re basically saying the people who live in this house have an illness,” DMHAS spokeswoman Mary Kate Mason said Thursday, noting the stigma those in recovery can face. “We want to make sure that people who live in a home on the registry know that (information about the home) will be public.”

Mason, who is the legislative liaison for DMHAS, said her agency helped craft the language legislators passed.

She noted that people don’t have to choose a home that’s on the list if they don’t want to. She also pointed out that sober houses, like any other house, are subject to zoning and public safety regulations, which are created and modified at the local level.

“It finds a way to encourage sober home owners to meet a certain standard but also allows for people in recovery to have a choice,” Mason said of the bill.

In New London, where at least seven people have died in sober homes since 2014, officials have been supportive of the bill since it was introduced in February. Human Services Director Jeanne Milstein was among those who traveled back and forth to Hartford to work on its final language.

Asked whether Gov. Dannel P. Malloy intends to sign the bill, spokesman David Bednarz said only that Malloy and his staff “will review the language that was included in the final bill when it is transmitted to his desk in the coming days.”

l.boyle@theday.com