Despite the great potential for supportive housing to reduce recidivism and prevent homelessness, there are several challenges that can impede a recently released individual's access to it. First and foremost, eligibility for most supportive housing is restricted to homeless people, typically defined as persons living in shelters, on the street, or in other unsuitable locations. People at risk of homelessness, including people soon to be released from prison or jail, are often considered ineligible for homeless assistance or supportive housing projects.

Underlying this situation is the fact that the main source of funding for homeless assistance in the United States, the McKinney-Vento Act programs of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), uses a federal definition of homelessness that excludes people who are incarcerated. ^[1]   This part of the statute has been interpreted to mean that people leaving correctional institutions are not considered homeless, and are therefore ineligible for any housing and services funded through the McKinney-Vento Act.

Over the years, the availability of McKinney-Vento Act funds has resulted in the creation of thousands of homeless and supportive housing programs across the country. Many HUD officials and homeless advocates have expressed concern, however, that expanding McKinney-Vento eligibility to include all persons leaving prison and jail would only increase the pressure on the already overburdened federal homeless assistance resources. Indeed, levels of McKinney-Vento funding have not increased to meet ever-rising demand.

Nevertheless, without alternative funding streams available, many homeless assistance organizations continue to use McKinney-Vento resources to assist people who have been incarcerated. Such housing providers comply with federal regulations by essentially "making" people leaving prison or jail homeless by sending these individuals to spend a night, or several nights, in shelters before they can enter a housing program. In so doing, these providers take the chance that recently released individuals can withstand the risks of recidivism, relapse, mental health decompensation, or medical and health care emergencies associated with shelter environments. Ironically, HUD's strict use of the definition of homelessness has resulted in the widespread reliance on homeless shelters as the default first stop for individuals coming out of prison or jail.

In some jurisdictions, community-based organizations have been able to negotiate eligibility determination procedures with local and regional HUD offices. Notwithstanding the restrictions in the McKinney-Vento statute, individuals being released from prison and jail may be considered homeless if correctional transition planners or community-based organizations can determine, prior to release, that those individuals are at serious risk of homelessness. Such procedures involve documenting attempts at locating families or exhausting other housing options first.

Example: AIDS Housing Corporation (MA)

In Boston, the AIDS Housing Corporation was able to obtain a letter ruling from HUD which clarified that an individual set to be released from prison or jail could be deemed officially homeless if he or she met these criteria: 1) he or she had no identified housing options upon release from prison; 2) he or she had no ability to re-establish contact with family members or an alternative support network; and 3) successive attempts at identifying housing and/or support networks for the individual failed.

Elsewhere in the country, non-profit homeless assistance providers avoid using emergency shelters to establish McKinney-Vento eligibility by placing individuals just released from correctional settings into their own shelter or emergency housing before placing them into McKinney-Vento funded supportive housing. This phased process satisfies federal eligibility requirements, while ensuring that individuals are placed in safe and stable settings and provided with a continuity of care.

Example: Fortune Academy, Fortune Society (NY)

The Fortune Academy, a residential facility in West Harlem, provides 18 emergency and 41 longer-term beds for homeless individuals, as well as access to the Fortune Society's array of supportive services, many of which receive McKinney-Vento funds. Many of the individuals who‘žoccupy the Academy's emergency beds go on to live at the Academy for six months to a year.

Several recent attempts have been made to avoid this pitfall through the more precise targeting of homeless assistance resources to those subpopulations of discharged individuals that are believed to be at highest risk of homelessness. This has been particularly effective in jurisdictions where the historical use of homeless shelters can be tracked through data management systems, known as Homeless Management Information Systems. At-risk individuals are assigned a unique identifier code or number to help document their usage of shelters or other homeless resources. Local HUD staff or housing providers can then access coded records to confirm the eligibility of these individuals for homeless assistance upon their release from prison or jail. Communities can also target homeless assistance resources more effectively by matching their homeless shelter use data with jail or prison admissions data to identify individuals known to cycle regularly between jails and prisons and homeless shelters. In New York City, for example, the Departments of Correction and Homeless Services have initiated a formal collaboration in which they have matched their data systems to identify individuals that are frequently in contact with both agencies. These agencies are jointly developing an initiative that would target housing assistance resources to these at-risk individuals, with the goal of breaking the cycle of homelessness and incarceration.