June 2013
The Cabinet-level Reentry Council is working to enhance community safety and well-being, assist those returning from prison and jail becoming productive citizens, and save taxpayers dollars by lowering the direct and collateral costs of incarceration
Housing Stable housing with appropriate supportive services is a key factor for those coming out of incarceration in preventing or ending homelessness and reducing recidivism. Reentry Council agencies are collaborating to advance policies, programs, and models that support
stable housing and reentry services for those with criminal histories so they can successfully reenter their communities, and where appropriate, reunite with their families. Agencies are working together to reduce barriers to public and subsidized housing, and advance promising models that improve outcomes for people who repeatedly use corrections and homeless services.
Accomplishments to Date • Department of Housing and Urban Development
•
(HUD) Letters – HUD developed a Reentry MythBuster and sent letters to executive directors of public housing authorities (PHAs) and to multi-family home owners across the country, clarifying HUD’s position on the limited categories of ex-offenders who are permanently barred from HUD properties. The letters encourage the development of policies and procedures that allow formerly incarcerated individuals to rejoin their families in HUD-assisted housing while maintaining safety for residents, stating, “People who have paid their debt to society deserve the opportunity to become productive citizens and caring parents, to set the past aside and embrace the future. Part of that support means helping ex-offenders gain access to one of the most fundamental building blocks of a stable life – a place to live.” HUD Training and Outreach – An orientation of HUD Regional and Field Office Points of Contact regarding HUD’s reentry efforts was conducted and will support consistent responses to inquiries from government partners.
• Promising Strategies Dissemination – The U.S.
Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) Access to Justice Initiative published “Searching Out Solutions: Constructive Alternatives to Criminalization,” which includes a focus on effective housing strategies for the reentry population. USICH and Reentry Council staff are working together to reach the field with promising dissemination and education strategies, including through the DOJ guide, “Reducing Homeless Populations’ Involvement in the Criminal Justice System.”
• Solutions Database – USICH launched its online
“Solutions Database” of proven and promising solutions and innovations that will help end homelessness. Organized by the objectives of “Opening Doors,” the federal strategic plan to end homelessness, the database includes several promising innovations under the “Access to Justice” objective that address the needs of justice-involved people experiencing homelessness.
• Funding Collaboration – HHS awarded $6 million
for Community-Centered Responsible Fatherhood Ex-Prisoner Reentry Pilot Projects to implement comprehensive community-centered services to reentering fathers and their families. These projects will coordinate federal resources from HHS, DOJ, DOL, HUD, and local PHAs, and provide responsible fatherhood and healthy relationship activities, employment services, housing, and other interventions to help stabilize formerly incarcerated individuals and their families.
• Reentry Housing Innovations’ Roundtable –
Reentry Council agencies organized a roundtable with organizations that were developing, supporting, and researching various housing programs that were successfully integrating formerly incarcerated individuals into communities.
Snapshot
Agenda Moving Forward Promote Effective Program Models and Technical Assistance Strategies Reentry Council agencies will identify proven and promising reentry housing models such as permanent supportive housing. Agencies will also promote technical assistance strategies and align funding opportunities to connect housing to needed health care, treatment, and supportive services, including new opportunities provided by the Affordable Care Act.
Build Knowledge about What Works in Reentry/Housing Reentry Council agencies will build knowledge about what housing models, interventions, and practices are proven to produce positive outcomes related to recidivism and housing. The agencies will seek opportunities to support research and evaluations that can examine the impact of housing on recidivism, economic stability, family reunification, and other outcomes. In addition,
the agencies will collect, summarize, and disseminate findings from studies currently under way by multiple agencies that involve housing interventions focused on formerly incarcerated people.
Improve Policies to Enhance Reentry/Housing Outcomes HUD will identify and develop strategies to reduce possible collateral consequences caused by federal housing policy and local housing provider discretion. HUD will take appropriate actions, which may include but are not limited to guidance, notice, training, and/or regulation/statute amendment.
Disseminate Information and Engage Stakeholders Other efforts under development include an inventory of PHA reentry programs, a cross-training plan, and a webinar targeting HUD field offices, PHAs, and other reentry stakeholders.
Key Resources (Housing) Reentry Council
USICH Solutions Database
http://csgjusticecenter.org/nrrc/projects/firc/
http://www.usich.gov/usich_resources/solutions/
Reentry MythBusters http://csgjusticecenter.org/nrrc/projects/mythbusters/
Searching Out Solutions: Constructive Alternatives to Criminalization
National Reentry Resource Center – Housing
http://www.usich.gov/issue/ alternatives_to_criminalization
http://csgjusticecenter.org/reentry/issue-areas/ housing/
HUD Secretary letters on Public and Multi-Family Housing http://csgjusticecenter.org/nrrc/reentry-councilproducts-resources/