Research shows that in 2018, nearly 570 of every 10,000 formerly incarcerated people experienced housing insecurity upon release. And one study found homelessness is between 7.5 to 11.3 times more prevalent (PDF) within the population of people incarcerated in jails.

This is largely because formerly incarcerated people face barriers to affordable and stable housing (PDF), including lack of income at release, difficulty qualifying for rental properties because of criminal records, and restrictions on living in public housing (PDF) for people convicted of certain offenses.

This is particularly true for people with behavioral health needs, who face the dual challenges of accessing treatment for mental health needs and substance use disorders and finding stable housing. People without stable housing may have more difficulty accessing mental health and substance use disorder treatment, which compounds their housing instability.

Recognizing the link between housing instability and behavioral health needs for formerly incarcerated people, California developed a unique grantmaking program to support this population through Proposition 47.

Also known as the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, Proposition 47 reduced some of the state’s low-level drug possession and property felonies to misdemeanors, which led to a reduction in spending on incarceration. The state’s Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) distributes those savings in the form of competitive grants to public agencies to provide mental health services, substance use disorder treatment, or diversion programs for justice-involved people. Since 2017, the BSCC has allocated nearly $200 million in funding to government entities across the state for two cohorts of grants.

The Urban Institute is evaluating Orange County’s Proposition 47 program. Findings from our final evaluation of Cohort 1 services and the interim evaluation of Cohort 2 services show Orange County’s approach to providing reentry services has largely been successful. As the BSCC prepares to distribute a third cohort of funding of more than $143 million, county agencies and service providers can implement lessons learned from Proposition 47 programs over the past five years to promote successful reentry.

Reentry providers can implement the following lessons from Orange County’s Proposition 47 program as they develop services to meet the needs of formerly incarcerated people.

  • Enable warm handoffs to postrelease services.
  • Centralize information on reentry resources.
  • Recognize that housing needs for formerly incarcerated people vary.
  • Build relationships across organizations.

Read the full article about helping the formerly incarcerated obtain housing by Libby Doyle at Urban Institute.