When having a criminal record makes you ten times more likely to be homeless, criminality, regardless of your crime, clearly still brands people with a scarlet letter. Prison Policy Initiative’s report “Nowhere to Go: Homelessness among Formerly Incarcerated People” provides the first look at this specific social effect of incarceration.

The report reveals three major insights: 1) How the formerly incarcerated are disproportionately homeless 2) How officials ostracize the formerly incarcerated from permanent housing even if they aren’t technically homeless and 3) How institutions can get the formerly incarcerated off the streets.

Two-hundred and three out of every ten thousand formerly incarcerated people is homeless. That number is only twenty-one among the general population. Being black, over thirty-five years old, female, incarcerated multiple times, or out of prison under two years amplifies your odds. Each of these subcategories has more than 203 out of every 10,000 people homeless. Homelessness is most rampant in the first two years post-release, with 242 out of every 10,000 without a home. Even four years post-release, someone with a criminal record is four times more likely to be homeless than someone without a record. A second stint in prison alone increases someone’s odds of being homeless six-fold.

“Homeless” encompasses both those who are sheltered and those who are unsheltered, moving from place to place. Of the ex-inmate homeless population, it is almost an even split between those with shelter (98 per 10,000) and those without shelter (105 per 10,000). For those with shelter, black women have a disproportionately higher presence there than any other demographic. Black women are four times more likely to be in a homeless shelter than white men.

But, capturing the formerly incarcerated’s struggle for housing includes looking at the housing insecure—those who are in marginal housing (hotels, motels, and shared spaces). Combining the housing insecure with the homeless puts 570 out of every 10,000 formerly incarcerated people without permanent housing. Legal discrimination and a shortage of affordable housing create an inability to find stable housing. Property owners implement a second sentence on ex-inmates by establishing their own applications for housing, giving them full ability to deny someone with a criminal record. Even if a housing authority or owner accepts an ex-inmate, the formerly incarcerated often can’t meet the high economic barriers to re-entry, such as funds or government issued documents.

The Prison Policy Initiative identifies four ways to alleviate this lack of housing. First, localities should streamline and centralize a program whose solely help the recently-released to find shelter. In most states, ex-inmates either get no help with this or there is no clear housing office. Second, criminality should not be part of a housing application. Since a criminal record is not a good indicator of tenant quality, there is no reason to let owners make it a primary question. Third, law enforcement should help the homeless, not arrest them for breaking ordinances which effectively ban homelessness. Redirection to housing resources would actually address the problem, not just criminalize it. Last, “Housing First” programs should be adopted to treat ex-inmate homelessness as a public health issue. This kind of program would give budgetary priority to societal re-entry for the formerly incarcerated, thereby reducing the number of arrests of the homeless and reducing the homeless population overall.

Original Report:

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