Housing
Most cities bar formerly incarcerated people from public housing—even when their families reside there. This puts a strain on families, deprives men and women returning home from prison of the foundation for a stable life, and has a slew of social costs when people become homeless and unemployed, relapse, or are re-incarcerated.
With an array of partners, our pilot program in New York City is reuniting 150 carefully screened formerly incarcerated people with their families in public housing. It could be a model for smart, safe, cost-effective housing policies nationwide. Similarly, work with the Housing Authority in New Orleans to replace blanket prohibitions with individualized assessments is providing access to publicly funded housing and employment assistance to some of the people who need it most.
Featured
Zun Lee
NYCHA Family Reentry Pilot
Reuniting Families in New York City Public Housing
This two-year pilot program aims to help formerly incarcerated people by reuniting them with their families in public housing. The program builds on the growing nationwide momentum to ease public housing bans on people with criminal convictions. In this first phase, 150 people wishing to live in public housing—all of whom have been released from a ...
Project
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Margaret diZerega
Public Housing for People with Criminal Histories
Fact Sheet
Stable housing is essential to supporting a formerly incarcerated person’s successful return to his or her community. Until recently, however, most public housing authorities throughout the country have prevented formerly incarcerated people from formally returning to their homes or living with family members in public housing. In response to this ...
In New Orleans, the housing authority is helping people with criminal convictions rejoin families
Think about a particularly trying time in your life. Now think about not having a place to stay or family to support you during this time of hardship. Would you have made it? For people recently convicted of a crime, having a place to stay and the support of family are often the most influential factors in their success. But for decades, housin ...
Blog Post
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Mathilde Laisne
Related Work
Flyers for Public Housing Authorities on Reentry Housing
Public housing authorities are changing their policies to increase access for people with conviction histories—making communities, housing developments, and families safer. The Oklahoma City Housing Authority and the Lafayette Housing Authority recently reexamined their admissions policies to improve access. Both housing authorities are partners in ...
(Returning) Home for the Holidays
As public attention grows to the difficulties people with criminal justice involvement face in securing housing, opportunities for reform emerge. We recently convened PHA representatives and local law enforcement partners from around the country in New Orleans to discuss how to move this work forward. And, Colorado’s Department of Local Affairs (DO ...
Blog Post
Byron Kline
Providence Housing Authority Addresses Reentry
Following this reversal, the Providence Housing Authority began to actively review its role in reentry reform and how the agency could proactively address this issue with the support of the PHA Administration, its Board of Commissioners, PHA residents, local elected officials, and community partners. For example, we were one of 14 housing authoriti ...
Blog Post
Marcela Betancur
Finding housing is hard—but for people leaving prison and jail, it’s almost impossible
We need to open doors for people reentering society, not shut them.
In recent years, however, there has been growing momentum to ease restrictions around housing for formerly incarcerated individuals. In 2017, Vera launched the Opening Doors to Public Housing initiative to expand access to housing for people with conviction histories. Now, with funding from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistan ...
Blog Post
Jack Duran
Opening Doors
Safely Increasing Access to Public Housing for People with Conviction Histories
For more than 600,000 people leaving prison and the nearly 11 million cycling through jails annually, research shows that safe, affordable housing is essential for them to succeed after they are released. While all public housing authorities (PHAs) must, by law, place lifetime exclusions on people who are lifetime-registered sex offenders or who ha ...
Expanding Housing Access for Formerly Incarcerated People
Everyone deserves a place to call home. However, for many people leaving our nation’s prisons and jails, the main barrier to successful reentry is access to safe and affordable housing. Formerly incarcerated people often do not have the financial means to rent in the private market, or they wish to live with family in public housing. Yet, many publ ...
Blog Post
Hana Le
Developing Reentry Programs
Lessons from Public Housing Authorities
My team in Vera’s Center on Sentencing and Corrections have worked with 11 of these PHAs since November 2016 to document their innovations for a new guide, Opening Doors: How to develop reentry programs using examples from public housing authorities. The guide reveals components of a reentry program that PHAs should consider (such as partners, fund ...
Blog Post
John Bae
Opening Doors
How to develop reentry programs using examples from public housing authorities
A growing number of public housing authorities (PHAs) across the country are implementing reentry programs and changing their policies to help formerly incarcerated people secure housing. This report highlights 11 PHAs doing this work and examines best practices and lessons learned from their experiences—including key factors of program design and ...
"Keep Your Head On" Groundswell (c) 2017
Helping People with Prior Convictions Access NYC Public Housing
Finding housing is hard for people with conviction histories, especially in public housing. Most housing authorities in the country have policies that temporarily or permanently bar people with conviction histories, even though studies have shown that when people released from incarceration obtain stable housing, they are significantly more likely ...
Blog Post
Anne McDonough
"Bringing Light (Re-entry)” Groundswell © 2017
A Direction Home
In Recognition of National Reentry Week
Report to the New York City Housing Authority
Applying and Lifting Permanent Exclusions for Criminal Conduct
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is conducting an internal review of its policies related to permanent exclusions for criminal conduct on NYCHA property. Permanent exclusion (PE) occurs when a NYCHA tenant—rather than risk eviction—enters into a stipulation that those associated with the resident who have engaged in non-desirable behavi ...
Innovative Reentry Practices for Incarcerated People Coming Home
For an incarcerated person, leaving prison can be both exhilarating and overwhelming: freedom is finally palpable. But, for over 700,000 people leaving prisons and jails annually, the pressure of finding a home is an immediate and paramount strain. The mark of a past criminal record eliminates many housing possibilities precisely at the moment when ...