The National Housing Incubator is funded by an award from the Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance.
Oakland, CA – Oakland-based nonprofit Impact Justice today named six organizations across the country as the first recipients of the National Housing Incubator Awards. Funded by the Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), this initiative will bolster critically needed, diverse solutions to the country’s overlapping reentry and housing crises at the local, regional, and national level.
According to the U.S.Department of Justice more than 650,000 people are released each year from state and federal prisons across the country, two-thirds of whom will be re-arrested within three years (U.S. Department of Justice, Prisoners and Prisoner Re-Entry, n.d.). For the past decade, Impact Justice has pioneered solutions to the most pressing criminal justice issues in the United States. The need for comprehensive and effective reentry programming nationwide has never been more urgent: formerly incarcerated people are nearly ten times more likely to become homeless than the general public, fueling a cycle of criminalization that compounds an ever-worsening housing crisis.
Located within Impact Justice’s broader Housing Lab initiative, the National Housing Incubator serves as a hub through which housing experts and other strategic partners provide robust financial and technical assistance to organizations seeking to refine or scale their own reentry housing programs. Recipients of the 2024 funding were selected from a pool of 128 applicants from 26 states, plus the nation’s capital, all of whom presented creative and inspiring ideas to improve reentry outcomes. “We were beyond impressed with the quality – and quantity – of proposals we reviewed,” says Bernadette Butler, Director of the Housing Lab at Impact Justice. “The proposals selected for funding this year have the potential to positively impact thousands of people leaving prison across the country, the communities they’re returning to, and innovations in the housing and reentry space as a whole.”
Organizations awarded funding from the National Housing Incubator include:
- WELD: This project expands WELD’s reentry housing program through enhanced case management, integrating healthcare with housing support to help members navigate behavioral health services, primary care, Medicaid, and community resources for sustained reentry success.
- Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation (PBMR): This program tackles housing instability and recidivism risk for returning citizens in high-poverty areas by providing transitional housing and comprehensive support services, focusing on self-sufficiency and addressing urgent needs in underserved neighborhoods.
- The TIME Organization: This program addresses the reintegration challenges of older men returning from long-term sentences through a comprehensive wrap-around model that includes transitional housing, life skills and technology integration, and supportive services, setting a precedent for successful reentry and informing broader strategies.
- Abe Brown Ministries (ABM): This program expands supportive housing to provide privacy and dignity for individuals on community supervision or recently released, addressing the affordable housing crisis and enhancing stability and reintegration for returning citizens in a low-income community.
- Texas Harm Reduction Alliance (THRA): This project enhances housing stability and wellness for individuals exiting incarceration, particularly those with a history of drug use, by expanding case management and creating a continuity of care model. THRA aims to reduce barriers to stable housing and set a model for comprehensive reentry support.
- Options Recovery Services: This project aims to provide stable short-term and long-term housing for reentry clients with substance use disorders and/or co-occurring mental health issues by leveraging cross-sector collaboration with local governments and agencies to integrate housing assistance and support services.
The National Housing Incubator anticipates additional cycles, awarding organizations across the country with funding for training and technical assistance. The inaugural cycle will provide lessons learned that Impact Justice will apply to future efforts.
