Admittedly, the relationship between supportive housing and the criminal justice system is not an obvious one at first glance, nor is it the case that the need for supportive housing targeting formerly incarcerated persons has been sufficiently argued.

Why should supportive housing providers be interested in the community of reentry of ex-offenders? Because the vast majority of returning ex-offenders are the same people that supportive housing providers set out to serve – those who face persistent mental health; substance abuse; and other chronic health challenges, and are at risk of homelessness.

A recent study by the Urban Institute found that rates of mental illness among incarcerated individuals are at least twice as high as the rates in the overall U.S. population, and estimates that between 8 to 16 percent of the prison population have at least one serious mental illness and require some form of psychiatric services. HIV sero-prevalence among inmates is staggering, to the dismay and panic among county and state prison administrators nationwide. Between 151,000 and 197,000 people released from correctional facilities in the U.S. are living with HIV / AIDS, with millions of others living with infectious diseases such as Hepatitis B and C, and Tuberculosis. Eighty percent of the state prison population in the U.S. reports a history of drug and/or alcohol use, of which 74% are expecting to be release in the next year!

Whether more individuals are homeless prior to incarceration (in which case their homelessness might be the direct cause of their detention or incarceration) or as a result of their incarceration is unclear, but most experts agree that homeless individuals and ex-offenders alike, particularly those facing chronic health challenges, tend to cycle in and out of street homelessness, shelters, and prisons. Any way one looks at the issue, there is undeniably a tremendous overlap between the population we refer to as “ex-offenders) and the population we refer to as “the homeless.”

Excerpt from A Guide to Reentry Supportive Housing: A Three-Part Primer for Non-Profit Supportive Housing Developers, Social Services Providers, and Their Government Partners, written by Richard Cho, Doug Gary, Leslie Ball, and Mark Ladov: 31 pages. Printed by the Corporation for Supportive Housing; April 2002. The full guide is available for free download at http://nicic.org/