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.
Related Work
(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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Coming Home
An Evaluation of the New York City Housing Authority’s Family Reentry Pilot Program
Public housing authorities across the nation historically have barred many with criminal records from public housing residency. However, given evidence of the critical role stable housing and family reunification plays for people coming back to their communities from incarceration, some housing authorities are rethinking their practices. This repor ...
Opening Doors to Public Housing
Expanding Access for People with Conviction Histories
Access to safe, affordable housing is essential to the success of people in reentry and their families. For people leaving prison or jail or those with conviction histories who want to reunify with their family members in public housing or apply for housing themselves, admissions criteria can be a serious barrier. Federal guidelines leave many poli ...
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 ...