Any transitional plan should include training around the different types of housing available, the housing search process, and housing maintenance strategies. Transitional planners may collaborate with or refer individuals to housing advocacy groups to provide this information. Housing advocacy is a form of assistance that helps individuals with finding and applying for housing, advocating and negotiating with landlords, and providing counseling support to ensure the individual's housing stability once he or she is in the community. Housing advocacy services tend to be provided to specific populations, such as persons living with HIV/AIDS or persons with mental illness, but in some cases are available to the general population.

Example: Housing Handbooks, AIDS Housing Corporation (MA)

The AIDS Housing Corporation has developed a handbook called How to Get to a Place called Home as a tool to provide inmates with information and education about finding housing in the community after release. This handbook is regularly sent to discharge planners in Massachusetts county and state correctional institutions so that they can distribute it directly to inmates.

Transition planners should also seek to ensure that the individuals that they assist understand the implications of certain local housing laws. In many states and localities, for instance, private landlords are able to access the criminal records of prospective tenants, and can refuse housing to persons based on their criminal histories. Federal fair housing laws, along with some state or local laws, may extend some rights against housing discrimination for people with criminal histories. In Madison, Wisconsin, for example, individuals with an "arrest record or conviction record" are included as a protected class under fair housing laws by city ordinance. ^[1]   Transitional planners should work with community-based organizations, including local housing advocacy or legal services providers, to educate inmates about their rights as tenants.