A few jurisdictions have created new models of specialized service-supported housing that specifically target people leaving correctional institutions. Although the number of these re-entry housing programs remains small-only a handful of experimental projects exist, and they are scattered across the country-these projects have demonstrated how dedicated nonprofit organizations can mobilize existing resources and funding to create a combination of housing and social services that can dramatically improve outcomes for people leaving incarceration.

Re-entry housing is built upon the supportive housing model. As with supportive housing, re-entry housing blends a multitude of funding sources, usually involves partnerships and linkages among multiple nonprofit providers with different areas of expertise, and offers residents a comprehensive array of service options in addition to affordable housing.

Re-entry housing differs from supportive housing, however, in that it is specifically designed to meet the needs of people being released from prison and jail, providing not only case management and counseling services tailored to releasees, but also a link within a continuum of services beginning in the correctional institution itself. In other words, prison- or jail-based transition planning services are provided through (or in coordination with) re-entry housing. Such services can include transportation from the correctional facility, entitlements and benefits advocacy, family reunification services, legal advocacy, and assistance with criminal justice supervision requirements. In addition to serving the general population of people leaving correctional settings, some re-entry projects include programming or units set aside for people with special needs, providing additional services designed to assist persons with mental illness, HIV/AIDS, and/or addiction.

Example: Ridge House (NV)

The Ridge House provides residential and outpatient counseling to individuals recently released from prisons and jails who are struggling with substance-addiction. In each phase of its program, Ridge House teaches what it calls "re-entry skills." During the "stabilization" phase, clients simultaneously receive support from staff and learn the necessary skills for self-responsibility. The "habilitation" phase includes substance-abuse counseling along with vocational training, parenting classes, and other programming designed to prepare clients for re-integration into family and community life.

Transition planners should be encouraged by the fact that new re-entry housing projects are being developed every day. At one end of the spectrum of re-entry housing is the single-site, "congregate" facility, in which all units are located in a single location, such as a small-scale, rural re-entry housing project. At the other end of the spectrum are scattered-site, "noncongregate" models, where rental subsidies are used to rent units on the private rental market, including large-scale, urban apartment buildings. Some providers link single-site projects with scattered-site projects to provide a continuum of housing options for people who have been released from prison or jail, and to encourage releasees who no longer need supportive services to live independently.

Example: Heritage Health and Housing (NY)

Heritage Health and Housing is a nonprofit provider of housing and other services to people who are homeless and/or have mental illnesses. Heritage's specialized re-entry housing program targets parolees with serious mental illnesses and includes six service-enriched transitional beds (single-site, with on-site supervision and services) and 13 supported apartments (scattered site, mobile service staff) around upper Manhattan and the Bronx. Residents typically stay in the transitional beds for 4 to 12 months, after which they are placed into the scattered-site supported apartments or referred to Heritage's other supportive housing programs.

Another important difference between traditional supportive housing projects and re-entry housing is that many re-entry housing projects are intended to be transitional or temporary. While some people (parolees and others) with special needs may be content to live with peers in a single building, individuals who have been released from prison or jail may neither need nor desire to permanently live with other released individuals. For this reason, many re-entry housing projects are designed as "phased-permanent" housing, offering tenants month-to-month occupancy agreements rather than traditional annual leases. This arrangement can give re-entry housing tenants the option of leaving at any time after they no longer need the assistance that a supportive setting provides.

Another innovation in re-entry housing is the co-location of emergency housing with permanent or phased-permanent housing. Some projects, in fact, provide emergency housing in a building that also provides permanent housing. This housing can thus serve as a safe and stable shelter for numerous people released from prison or jail each year, while also providing a longer-term housing option with links to supportive services for those in need. These "built-in" housing continuums have proven an important component to re-entry housing, addressing both the immediate and longer-term housing needs of individuals returning to the community from incarceration.

In a sense, developers of re-entry housing face magnified versions of the challenges facing developers of nonprofit supportive housing. As indicated above, the number of funding sources available to nonprofits interested in building re-entry housing is even more limited than funds available for other housing projects. These nonprofits must also wrestle with the challenges of siting their facilities in unwelcoming communities. (See Policy Statement 30, Housing Systems, for more discussion of the NIMBY phenomenon.) As in the case of supportive housing, no system exists to facilitate the development of re-entry housing. In a few instances, state or local departments of corrections have used their resources in innovative ways to fund specialized re-entry housing projects. In these programs, the department of corrections provides funding to cover or supplement the cost of supportive services provided to residents who return to the community from prison or jail.

Example: Parole Support and Treatment Program, Project Renewal (NY)

Project Renewal, a New York City-based nonprofit social service agency, operates the Parole Support and Treatment Program, a 50-bed, scattered-site transitional housing model for people with serious mental illnesses who are released from New York state prisons on parole supervision. Providing subsidized apartments along with mobile case management and psychiatric services to residents, the project was funded through collaboration between the New York State Office of Mental Health and the New York State Division of Parole. In this collaboration, the Division of Parole allocated funds directly to the Office of Mental Health to cover the costs associated with delivering mobile services to parolees living in housing subsidized by the Office of Mental Health.

To find out if a re-entry housing project exists in a particular state or locality, transition planners can contact intermediary organizations and supportive housing trade associations, which may be helpful in identifying particular kinds of projects or providers that can meet the housing needs of individuals leaving prison or jail.