Reentry programming and services are the buzz in corrections these days as offenders receive educational programming, job skills and many now have their medical and mental health appointments set up by the time their sentences end. But one of the most critical pieces to successful reentry is more difficult for corrections departments to procure – appropriate housing.

But without a safe place to lay their heads, offenders are at high risk to fall back into their old bad habits and recidivate.

“One of the things is that is tricky is people on the corrections side don't know where to start. The housing process in community systems is so complex. It's one thing to say ‘We're going to do something.' But not knowing who to call or even the right [housing] language to speak is another thing,” said Katherine Brown, Policy Analyst, Criminal Justice Programs for the Council of State Governments.

CSG, which operates the Re-Entry Policy Council and issued a major report last year on reentry best practices, has launched a housing initiative to help corrections and community agencies come together to find proper housing for releasing offenders. Other jurisdictions have also forged ahead on their own to create housing plans and housing goals to meet this important need.

With estimates that 10 percent of the 600,000 offenders released from prisons each year are homeless, states and local jurisdictions are beginning to realize that discharge planning efforts need to include stable housing. CSG hopes to help with that.

“We thought there was a need to get this information spread around so that people in the housing community could get familiar with the idea. The folks we have been speaking with, the states [correctional agencies], said they could use this kind of help,” said Brown of CSG's housing initiative.

CSG has worked with officials in Utah, Kansas and Minnesota to provide technical assistance for the efforts they already have underway and help officials determine the best course of action for developing housing.

Helping Agencies Start the Discussion

In Utah, county and state department of corrections officials have begun discussions around eliminating homelessness for offenders returning to the community. 

In Salt Lake County, an anti-homelessness initiative has started to address the problem by working with the county housing authority to create a pilot housing project for special populations. The project creates a master lease option for 50 percent of the housing units – set aside specifically for offenders.

According to Dale Schipaanboord, Programming Services Director for the Utah DOC, the Salt Lake City jail [ and the community] has a significant population to manage -- with more than 2,000 offenders being released each month.

Part of the reentry solution involves the jail, housing authority and other entities coming together to look more closely at these offenders' needs prior to release.

“The county jail, housing authority and [others] have been going through better assessments to determine issues[ and] veteran status, to be able to provide more stability when they are released,” said Schipaanboord. “Often it's a quick turn around.”

So, in addition to providing housing units for offenders, the initiative is working to provide connections to case management, substance abuse and mental health services and other supports.

“They will go right into the housing and find they have a point of connection with the case manager,” said Brown.

In addition, a separate Discharge Planning Committee, of which Schipaanboard is the chair, has been set up to address the reentry requirements of offenders in that county to provide a “clearer direction” for reentry planning for this region. Also, the committee has begun to connect different service institutions in the community such as mental health facilities, hospitals, substance abuse facilities so that needs can be addressed in a holistic way.

“There's more collaboration between these different institutions. A year ago I didn't know the issues that are going on the county jails,” said Schipaanboord.

As a part of the anti-homelessness project, the committee is planning to evaluate between six and 10 people and track them after release from the jail to find out how they have fared as well as any corresponding reduction in costs to the county and the state.

“The end result we are hoping to show is that by providing housing with supportive services it can have a reduction on recidivism,” he said.

The state DOC has also begun to address housing issues for offenders.

On average 3,200 offenders are released each year from Utah prisons to communities all across the state. Most of those offenders, according to Schipaanboord are released to parole and have an address. But about 20 percent are released directly into the community.

Until recently the Utah DOC never investigated which of those offenders actually had “live” addresses to return to.

“We are doing some transition work now. Two to three months prior to their release we are including faith-based and private non-profits to support this population upon release,” he said.

Schipaanboord also sad the DOC is looking into future homelessness prevention by providing support services to adolescents involved in the system as well.

“There is a better [effort] in providing them work opportunities, housing, tying them in with federal and state assistance and educational opportunities so that they aren't moving into a homeless situation down the road,” he said.

Officials in Minnesota are also working on several initiatives to address housing problems for releasing offenders. As a member of a five-state coalition, called the Midwest Re-Entry Housing Initiative, Minnesota officials have collaborated with other public and non-profit agencies in Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio to create housing for offenders.

“We [are trying] to develop a little political influence around the issue of reentry housing,” said Gary Johnson, Housing Program Manager for the Minnesota DOC. “The need is quite great in Illinois and Michigan and Ohio. They have huge inmate populations and we know through studies that probably 90 to 95 percent of those people will be released and going back to the communities they came from.”

According to Johnson, the group has agreed to create 500 affordable housing units across the five-state region for offenders over the next two years -- with each state committing to finding 100 units.

“In each of these states the population has been growing,” Johnson said. “So, in order to develop a more cost-effective way to make sure these people are successful after release, the idea is to try to do something a little more concerted in providing housing.”

Officials also realize that those offenders needing housing will likely have chronic mental health issues or other needs that will also have to be addressed -- through supportive services associated with the housing.

The initiative members will assemble their own teams to reach the housing goal and work to coordinate with multiple agencies within their state.

According to Johnson, Minnesota officials have partnered with the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) and a Minnesota-based supportive housing developer RS Eden and a special planning group for ending long term homelessness to find the 100 units.

But beyond this initiative, Minnesota officials want to tie those efforts into its own reentry program called Minnesota Comprehensive Offender Reentry Plan (MCORP).

“This initiative really would better serve the idea of getting those 100 units if it was aligned closely with the [state] reentry plan,” Johnson said.

Although still in the planning stages, the year-old effort is a collaboration with other state agencies that intersect with offenders after release including health, education human services and public safety.

“We've brought a number of those agencies together to be part of planning a pilot we will develop in specific targeted areas [for released offenders],” he said.

The pilot will target areas of the state where larger number of offenders return after release.

Currently, the project has begun with data gathering to assess the reentry needs of offenders. To accomplish this, corrections facilities have started to use the LSI-R assessment tool and have hired new transition coordinators to assist with transition planning for offenders entering the community.

“The big thing is to bring in the Community Corrections Act organizations and counties into the process, then develop some funding for them,” said Johnson. “We want to be careful and deliberate so that when we do it, we do it right.”

Johnson expects the pilot will be up and running by the spring.

And in Kansas, corrections officials are preparing to launch a re-entry program as well.

According to Cathy Hausheer, Re-Entry Housing Specialist for the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation and Department of Corrections, officials are working on easing some of the housing barriers for offenders and educating them about resources that are available in the community.

“Housing is a big issue. Twenty percent come out facing a housing issue; they have no family, spouse, or husband. It's a big issue especially in the Wichita area and the landlords don't let them in,” said Hausheer, who is charged with training corrections officials and inmates on these issues.

Hausheer's jointly funded position currently has her creating training programs for inmates and parolees as well as those who will supervise those offenders after release.

On the offender side, they will learn how to be good tenants, what their rental responsibilities would be and how to clean up their credit when applying for housing. For officials, the challenge is providing information about how difficult reentry can be without housing and how to help offenders succeed.

“[We are focusing on] find housing and understanding criminal screening. HUD projects (for example) screen out criminal backgrounds and traditional background checks screen out felonies as well, so we are working with HUD and public housing authorities,” she said.

This training for offenders and officials is set to start in March and the goal is to convince housing providers in the community to accepts ex-offenders for housing if they have completed the training prior to release.

Also in Shawnee County, a housing specialist program has been started to assist offenders with housing issues while they are incarcerated and to touch upon the other skills and resources they need in order to succeed. This program is expected to grow as well.

“We will soon have [another] reentry program in Sedgwick [County]. Both are doing everything from being employment specialists, providing cognitive skills and working with them on the high risk factors they have,” said Hausheer.

But a major focus remains on the housing problems these offenders face – something that the Wichita State University-sponsored Self-Help Network has also taken on.

The Self-Help Network, which is a group of community-based non-profits and providers, has become engaged in the issue of reentry housing and is working to promote the building of new units in high release areas of the state – and then study whether it has a lasting effect on reducing recidivism.

“That's still in planning stages. Hopefully that will work. The agreement is to do the research to find out what we need,” said Hausheer.

Housing Rises to Top of the List

States such as Georgia and Vermont have also begun to address housing issues for inmates reentering the community. For Georgia, its new Re-Entry Partnership Housing program grew out of the realization that many inmates were sitting behind bars who could be released – if they only had housing.

“This came out of housing being one of the barriers for successful reintegration once they are released [but] we also had a population within our system that had been granted parole, but parole requires they have a suitable housing plan,” said A.J. Sabree, Director of Reentry for the Georgia DOC.

According to Sabree, the DOC began by speaking with faith-based organizations in the community to learn about the challenges they faced in working with recently released offenders. Sabree said the DOC learned that the first two or three months – before offenders were able to land employment -- were the most difficult for both the offenders and service providers who were trying to support them.

With that information, Georgia DOC officials set out to find a solution.

“We identified some funds that were initially targeted to relieve prison bed space and we inquired to see if we could use some of that funding to help service providers on the outside to give [them] a subsidy for providing room and board, establishing mentors and helping with family reunification,” said Sabree.

So far that funding that is available to community services providers would equate to $600 per offender, per month for the first two or three months they are involved with those organizations.

“We are targeting those offenders who would be released already if they had somewhere to live. We have quite a number of offenders and if we can show there is a cost savings to the taxpayer, it could [be expanded],” he said.

In order to ensure that releasing offenders receive all the services they need, the DOC has targeted service providers who have some type of home environment.

“We are looking for folks to have a program component because our goal is that these people need programs and connections to resources to help them stay out, such as job placement programs and connections with physical health services,” Sabree said.

The DOC is currently accepting grant applications from community service providers who fit the criteria in five different areas of the state.

“We are looking at different types of housing. The majority of our offenders will eventually cohabitate with their families. We are looking for service providers who help with that transition,” he said.

And, before those offenders are released, the DOC is also helping them to prepare. Sabree said the DOC has focused its attention in assessments for criminogenic needs and matching them to programs that will address those needs, including cognitive restructuring, educational programs, job readiness and adult basic literacy.

“A large number of people haven't had the opportunity to be self sufficient. We are trying to address these issues with the offender at the earliest point of entry and connect them early in the process to assess their needs and also make sure they buy into an accountability plan,” he added.

Although the reentry program phase in the community is just beginning, corrections officials are hopeful that it, combined with work done inside prison walls, will be successful by lowering recidivism rates.

“Our main goal is to reduce recidivism and also provide public safety by helping offender s have a successful transition to the community. Housing is one of those critical barriers that if a person doesn't have it, it contributes their re-offending,” Sabree said.

Other states, like Vermont, are facing similar situations.

Like Georgia, Vermont prisons have many people behind bars who have exceeded their minimum sentences and are eligible for release into the community corrections system, but do not have housing.

With the state facing an overcrowding problems, both housing and corrections leaders as well as representatives from the community decided to come together to create a reentry housing plan.

With the largest number of offenders returning to Vermont's Chittenden County area – which includes the city of Burlington -- a Regional Advisory Committee was formed to discuss the housing issues offenders have as well as other needs.

“In the housing community we were hearing if we could just have housing for them [then] they could get out [but] it's a lot more complicated than that,” said Nancy Wasserman of Sleeping Lion Associates, who was a consultant for the Burlington, Vt., Housing Authority and helped create the reentry housing plan.

According to Wasserman, the issue was high on the agenda of all involved in the  advisory group, which included law enforcement, city managers, housing providers, social service providers, regional DOC representatives and the region's community justice centers.

“We came up with a bunch of recommendations and the realization that there were some real data deficiencies and definitely a need for more transitional housing units,” said Wasserman.

The group produced a report on the problems late last fall that called for a second reentry housing specialist to service offenders returning to the region, a need for transitional housing with supportive services, better collaboration between corrections, communities and service providers and a capital investment in the range of $2 to $3.4 million from the communities involved to fill the housing gap.

“We also recognized the additional things that need to be in place such as reentry planning beginning on the day people enter prison. There needs to be a facilitator that can interact between folks getting out and the landlord and housing community. It's really hard to get a call back when you are in jail,” Wasserman said.

The advisory committee also recognized that more information sharing needs to take place if this type of reentry collaboration is going to work.

“Like every corrections department there is great data on who this person is and their criminal history, but if you want a basic understanding of how many offenders are going to be housed and what are their needs, it wasn't there,” said Wasserman.

With the housing plan and reentry needs spelled out, the county and those involved will begin the process of implementing its recommendations.

“It is being used to secure funds for transitional housing and has helped increase the conversation,” said Wasserman.

And in many jurisdictions, even starting the conversation is a step in the right direction as corrections officials and community service providers begin to realize that they must work together in order to help stop the cycle of crime that leads to prison and jail overcrowding and rising costs for incarceration.

Resources:

Georgia DOC Re-Entry Housing – www.dca.state.ga.us/housing/specialneeds/programs/rph.asp

Vermont Regional Reentry Housing Plan - http://www.reentrypolicy.org/news/VT.Housing.Plan.php

Council of State Governments – Re-entry Policy Council http://www.reentrypolicy.org/index.php