Although there is little research that squarely addresses the plausibility and extent of a link between stable housing and reduced recidivism, two studies are illuminating. In the first, researchers Metraux and Culhane tracked almost 50,000 individuals who were released from New York State prisons and returned to New York City between 1995 and 1998. Eleven percent of these individuals entered a city homeless shelter, and 33 percent of that group was re-incarcerated within two years of their release. ^[1]   Further, over half of those who entered a shelter did so within one month of release from prison. Importantly, shelter use, both before incarceration and after release, was associated with an increased risk of return to prison: risk of re-incarceration increased 23 percent with pre-release shelter stay, and 17 percent with post-release shelter stay. Individuals with links to the mental health system had considerably higher proportions of shelter stays and re-incarcerations. A second qualitative study by the Vera Institute of Justice found that parolees who entered homeless shelters in New York City after leaving state prisons were seven times more likely to abscond during the first month after release than those who had some form of housing. ^[2]