D: Managing the Key Transition Period

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Outline
Introduction
Policy Statements:
19
20
21
22
23
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25
Additional Resources

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2: There is insufficient affordable housing available to people coming out of prison.

In this chapter:

Overview

Recommendations:

A. Ensure that transition planners, working with community-based organizations, are familiar with the full range of housing options available in each community and maintain lists or inventories of available housing.
B. Determine on an individualized basis the particular housing needs for each person released from prison or jail.
C. Evaluate the feasibility, safety, and appropriateness of an individual living with family members after his or her release from prison or jail.
D. Ensure that family violence risks are recognized and addressed in the housing plan of any person whose return to the community may pose a risk to the individual or to his or her family or partner.
E. Identify the appropriate housing option for each incarcerated individual well in advance of release.
F. Educate prisoners about strategies for finding and maintaining housing in the community, and teach them about their legal rights as tenants in the private rental market.
G. Provide individuals who are entering the private rental market-and who demonstrate that they are without adequate resources to pay rent-with small stipends and/or housing assistance for the period immediately after release.
H. Tap state and local funding used for traditional public safety and criminal justice purposes and leverage those resources to finance the development of supportive housing.
I. Develop "re-entry housing," to meet the specific and unique needs of people released from prison or jail.
J. Encourage private sector or nonprofit housing developers or community-based organizations to develop housing accessible to people leaving prison or jail.
K. Consider individuals leaving prison or jail who have histories of homelessness as part of the homeless priority population, to facilitate their access to supportive housing made available under the McKinney-Vento Act.
L. Coordinate with the local Public Housing Authority (PHA) to determine the eligibility of people leaving prison or jail for publicly managed or Section 8 housing.

Research Highlights:

/Report/PartII/ChapterII-D/PolicyStatement19/ResearchHighlight19-2

More specifically, there is not enough affordable housing to meet the demand of individuals in the general population who need it. ^[1] Former prisoners comprise only a subset of the larger population in need. Given the overwhelming demand for and limited supply of affordable housing and the stigma of having a criminal history, it is unrealistic that individuals released from prison or jail would be given priority access to the affordable housing. At the same time, there are public safety and other implications to categorically excluding recently released individuals from this housing stock.

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Reentry Policy Council

D: Managing the Key Transition Period

2: There is insufficient affordable housing available to people coming out of prison.

In this chapter: