Housing is already hard to find. What if you have a record?
Every year hundreds of thousands of people are released from prison in the U.S., millions more leave local jails. The barriers they face to find housing are enormous. But some communities are working to expand access and increase the supply. How are they doing it?
By the numbers
- The U.S. has the fifth highest incarceration rate in the world. (behind El Salvador, Cuba, Rwanda and Turkmenistan)
- Ohio has a higher incarceration rate than the U.S-621 per 100,000, compared to 614 per 100,000.
- Every year about 600,000 people in the U.S. are released from state and federal prisons and 9,000,000 more leave local jails.
- In Ohio, 18,000 leave state prisons every year and 75,000 more are released from county jails, according to a report by the Ohio Supreme Court.
- The Prison Policy Initiative puts that number much higher, saying 400,000 are released from jails every year in Ohio. (taking into account people who spend as little as one night locked up)
- Formerly incarcerated people are ten times more likely to be homeless. In 2021 about 40,000 people left a correctional facility for a homeless shelter in the U.S. (This is believed to be a drastic undercount since it doesn’t include unsheltered homelessness)
- In Ohio about one in three people go back to prison within three years of getting out. Housing security can help prevent recidivism.
Barriers to housing
If family ties have been severed, somebody leaving jail may be on their own to find housing. That’s not an easy thing to do.
Landlords are often reluctant to rent to somebody who has a record. They don’t know if the former inmate has changed and whether they will cause damage to the apartment.
Without a job initially, coming up with a down payment and the first month’s rent is difficult. And what if the job is not near the apartment and they don’t have a car?
Also, public housing authorities have rules that sometimes prohibit former inmates from renting. Some consider criminal histories as far back as twenty years. The Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority says potential residents have to be out of jail for at least three years before they can live in public housing. Greater Dayton Premier Management cites a HUD policy on its website saying it can deny admission to certain applicants with unfavorable criminal histories.
Help from Ohio
Certificate of Qualification for Housing
In September 2024 a new law took effect in Ohio which can help overcome housing barriers. It also offers a type of guarantee to landlords that if they rent to somebody with a record, who has a Certificate of Qualification for Housing, and that person hurts another tenant, that tenant can’t sue the landlord for renting to the former inmate.
To get a Certificate of Qualification for Housing a former inmate has to complete “education, training and readiness programming” from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. A judge decides whether to grant the certificate based on “the preponderance of the evidence, that the individual would materially benefit from it, has a substantial need for it to live a law-abiding life and would not pose an unreasonable safety risk to the public.”
The Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority has pledged to accept Certificates of Qualification for Housing but the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority told Brick by Brick it will not immediately accept them because it has a rule that the former inmate has to be out of prison for at least three years. (also, Cincinnati and Dayton are not handing out any new housing vouchers because of budget constraints)
The Ohio Supreme Court Reentry Task Force
In 2024 the Ohio Supreme Court Reentry Task Force made recommendations including, the courts “partner with housing programs to remove barriers to housing by creating a workgroup for providing education, revisiting housing policies and incentivizing landlords,” among other steps.
It also recommended to the state legislature that it “enact legislation to join the Clean Slate Initiative, a national effort to automatically clear records for eligible individuals to improve their ability to find jobs and housing.”
The Clean Slate Initiative says, “It is working across the country and in Congress to pass and implement laws that automate record sealing for people with eligible records who have completed their sentence and remained crime-free.”
Steps Cincinnati and Dayton are taking
Hamilton County’s Office of Reentry provides housing free of charge for 90 days for eligible participants. (Gap Housing Model)
In the jail lobby is a One-Stop Resource Center where fifty percent of inmates on their “Final Friday,” are looking for housing. Brick by Brick’s Hernz Laguerre Jr. reports on this and talks with a few inmates about their housing concerns in this podcast.
Cincinnati’s St. Vincent de Paul has a list of felon-friendly landlords, in addition to supportive community services and felon friendly employers.
Many surrounding counties have reentry courts, which also provide a variety of services, including help with housing. In all, Ohio has ten certified reentry specialty dockets and 63 counties covered by reentry coalitions which support the efforts of the court programs.
In the City of Hamilton, Ohio, Municipal Court Judge Dan Gattermeyer holds an Empowerment Docket on the second Wednesday of every month. An average of twenty people charged with minor crimes show up to this court appearance and leave with housing vouchers, food, plans for drug and mental health treatment assistance and more.
Since 2012 Dayton Federal Court has been helping former inmates get back on their feet. Five years in, U.S. Magistrate Michael Newman called the reentry court one of the best in the nation alongside Minneapolis. It also offers housing help, and assistance with driver’s license reinstatement, health insurance, parenting classes and more.
National recommendations and innovations
The Center for Justice Innovation and the NYU Furman Center Housing Solutions Lab have released a report called Housing Is Justice. It explores state and local innovations.
They cite examples where communities are expanding access to existing housing, increasing the supply, preventing criminal justice involvement, and encouraging housing and criminal justice agencies to work together.
Expanding access to existing housing
“Fair Chance” laws limit the use of criminal records in the tenant screening processes. The following states have these laws: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington.
Wichita, Kansas saw a big increase in landlord participation in its Emergency Housing Voucher Program after introducing sign-on bonuses to landlords. It reduced the number of unused vouchers from 300 to fewer than 10.
“In Northern Illinois (Winnebago County) a reentry initiative by the public housing authority showed an 80-percent success rate for voucher users returning from jail and successfully advocated for future voucher set-asides,” reports the Housing Solutions Lab.
Michigan’s Department of Corrections prioritizes public and subsidized housing for justice-involved people. It provides some people with both housing vouchers and help finding and applying for housing. New Haven, Connecticut sets aside 10-percent of its vouchers for people leaving incarceration.
The report cites multiple public housing authorities who have adopted more inclusive admissions criteria and some jurisdictions that have limited private landlords’ abilities to exclude prospective tenants based on criminal records. (Allegheny County, PA; Burlington, NC, New Haven, CT; Seattle, WA; and Winnebago County, IL)
Increasing the housing supply
Sioux Falls
Just Home is a partnership between the MacArthur Foundation and the Urban Institute in nine communities which aims to break the link between homelessness and incarceration.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota is seeing early signs of success. Director for Human Services in Minnehaha and Lincoln Counties Kari Benz tells Brick by Brick this summer they plan to release a report on how well the program is working. About 180 people have been referred.
Here’s what Sioux Falls has done:
- Investment dollars from the Sioux Falls Housing Authority helped pay for a 51-unit unit expansion to Glory House, permanent housing with on-campus access to mental health and addiction recovery services. It also helped rehab a 10-unit apartment building called St. Francis House.
- The tenants work with case managers to keep their lives on track.
- For people living at Glory House, who are further ahead in their reentry, Just Home pays the first month’s rent and renter’s insurance for a year.
- Those living at St. Francis are still getting connected with mental health and addiction counselors and need a bit more supervision. Just Home helps them secure housing vouchers.
Kari Benz says, “When we best invest, we actually are investing in the very people that make up our community. And so, when we do that, we offer opportunity for change. And really, I think it becomes more of a societal norm to be accepting rather than kind of excommunicating people when in fact they’re incredibly talented individuals.”
Toledo
The Center for Justice Innovation and the NYU Furman Housing Solutions Lab recently selected Toledo to be part of the 16-month Housing Justice Peer Network Program.
Tom Luettke is Reentry Coordinator at the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council in Lucas County. Anthem Blue Cross gave his agency more than 100-thousand dollars to start a master leasing program. It’s a renovated house where the landlord holds the lease and moves in and out about four recently released inmates who will have their own bedroom. They share a common space with other justice-impacted tenants.
Luettke says he is still figuring out the particulars. “Maybe have two months free rent because they’re not working. But it gives ‘em a stable place to live to go job search.” After losing a federal grant, he’s trying to put together additional funding to get the program off the ground in multiple houses.
Washington, DC
Jubilee Justice Housing builds new housing specifically for justice-involved individuals. Its housing is “deeply” affordable. Two-thirds of the apartments are 30-percent of the area’s medium income. Supportive services are nearby, so no transportation is needed, and the apartments are in “thriving neighborhoods,” to ensure future success for residents.
Home sharing in California and New York
A home-sharing model in California partners with homeowners who are willing to rent spare bedrooms to people returning from a long incarceration. The Homecoming Project says it provides a strong screening and matching process and offers ongoing support services. Hosts receive a monthly stipend.
In New York there’s a similar program for households welcoming back family members.
Limitations
The limitations are many according to the Housing Is Justice report. They include:
- Challenges to cross-sector collaboration
- Insufficient political will
- Misaligned incentives
- Resource constraints
- Lack of data sharing
- Lack of a common language and limited resources
But, as the report points out, “Successful partnerships were able to align goals and incentives….could test ideas and provide proof of concept to win over skeptical stakeholders.”
Looking ahead
Aisha Balogun, special projects associate at the Housing Solutions Lab, advocates for broader participation in decision making. She told Brick by Brick about the importance of “engaging people with lived experience and the formation of solutions and the importance of making sure that their voices are at the table and are one of the main folks advocating for these types of solutions.”
Kari Benz in Sioux Falls agreed saying, “the bottom line is the clients feel heard, which is a big shift for many communities, including ours.”
Here are additional resources:
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Ann Thompson – Host, Producer
Over the last thirty years in Cincinnati, Ann Thompson has brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her reporting. She has reported and anchored for WVXU, WKRC, WCKY, WHIO-TV and Metro Networks and freelanced for NPR, CBS and ABC Radio. Her work has been recognized by the Associated Press and she has won awards from the Association of Women in Communications and the Alliance for Women in Media. She is a former News Director and Operations Manager. Ann has reported from India, Japan, South Korea, Germany and Belgium as part of fellowships. Ann thinks of the Brick by Brick project as “journalism for good.” She serves as host and producer. Ann lives in Anderson Township with her husband Scott. They have two boys. Jake graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2022 and Kurt attends West Point.
