A Place to Call Home: A Key Ingredient to Reentry Success

On a spring day in Columbus, Ohio, on a quiet, tree-lined street, a woman I’d only just met opened her door wide and invited me into her warm, tidy home.  

She was a participant in a program called Returning Home Ohio, and she graciously showed me around her house, pointing out various personal touches in the design of each room. With each step, my hostess radiated pride and contentment for something so many of us take for granted daily; as someone who had been incarcerated for over 28 years, she now had a comfortable home in a safe community that she could call her own. 

Returning Home Ohio is one of the only programs of its kind in the country, in which a state department of corrections connects people to long-term supportive housing upon their release from prison. Since 2006, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has partnered with the Corporation for Supportive Housing to offer this program to people with a disability who were experiencing homelessness at the time of their arrest or are at risk of homelessness upon release. Boasting a single digit recidivism rate for program participants, it’s an effective and inspiring model that is drawing national attention for securing housing for people who often struggle to succeed after their release.  

For the woman I visited, Returning Home Ohio had provided far more than the roof over her head. It had also helped her to secure identification, a job, and more. 

My visit to Columbus that day was an auspicious one. Four years ago, I’d visited Houston to learn about the work their co-responders were doing to address homelessness in the city. This time around, I wanted to see how Returning Home Ohio was working to make sure people weren’t exiting prison into homelessness. It’s a simple yet ambitious goal and one that aligns with the vision of the CSG Justice Center’s newest national initiative, Zero Returns to Homelessness: secure housing for every person returning to their community from incarceration. 

Breaking the Cycle of Incarceration and Homelessness 

The need for such an effort is both chronic and acute. Since 2020, unsheltered homelessness has grown and become more visible across the country, with overall homelessness increasing by 12 percent between 2022 and 2023 alone.  This rise in unsheltered homelessness is due to a number of factors, including barriers to housing faced by people leaving prisons and jails, as well as an ongoing national shortage of affordable housing. These barriers particularly impact people of color, who are at substantially higher risk of ending up unsheltered.  

The increase in the number of people living on the streets has strained response systems and created significant public outcry for local and state leaders to address the issue.  

Unfortunately, homelessness and criminal justice involvement can become a cycle, with one contributing to the other. This occurs for a few reasons. Local policies and ordinances contribute to arrests for behaviors associated with homelessness. And lack of stable housing is often viewed as a risk factor, reducing courts’ willingness to divert people from jail or prison.​ Finally, a criminal record history may act as a barrier to obtaining housing due to stigma and biases.​ What all this means in practice is that someone is more likely to be arrested once they are homeless and less likely to get a home once they’ve been involved in the justice system. It’s a vicious cycle from which many struggle to escape. 

The time when a person is leaving prison or jail thus represents a key opportunity to break the cycle between homelessness and the criminal justice system and a pathway to leave the justice system behind for good.  

The good news is that state leaders are starting to recognize the value of focusing on reentry housing. In addition to Ohio’s program, Utah’s statewide Plan to Address Homelessness, for example, includes a strong focus on securing housing for the reentry population. And North Carolina recently released its Reentry 2030 strategic plan, which sets out a goal of reducing the number of formerly incarcerated people experiencing homelessness by 10 percent each year. 

A Bold but Achievable Vision

The lack of housing across the nation is a complex issue, and resolving it will require a lot of systems and champions passionate about the outcome. But there is one thing most people can agree on: stable housing is a key ingredient to successful reentry. Among other metrics, it: 

• Reduces returns to both prison and jail, 

• Increases connections to stabilizing community-based services, 

• Reduces rates of crime victimization, and 

• Reduces costs to corrections and other public systems.  

Through the Zero Returns to Homelessness initiative, the CSG Justice Center is providing long-term support to communities across the country as they work to increase housing access and availability for people in reentry. Last summer, we co-hosted the first-ever National Reentry Housing Symposium with federal, state, and local leaders. This fall, we will begin working with six states and Tribal nations in a national cohort intended to develop concrete housing expansion plans over the next two years.  

And this is only the beginning.   

My visit to Columbus was a reminder of what a home provides: a place to rest, to cook a meal, to visit with people you love, to recuperate when you’re sick, to hang a picture that makes you smile. For people in reentry, a home is also the very foundation—literally and figuratively—of their success. Working together, I believe we can realize a future in which all people have a safe, permanent place to call home upon reentering the community after incarceration. 

To learn more about the Zero Returns to Homelessness initiative and connect with our housing team directly, visit https://projects.csgjusticecenter.org/zero-returns-to-homelessness/take-action/.