CSH Ohio Reentry

On any given day, there are a little over 50,000 individuals in Ohio’s prisons; and each year, approximately 25,000 are released back to the community.  While the majority of these individuals have a place to call home, a small percentage will be released with nowhere to go; ultimately ending up homeless, in jail, in expensive emergency treatment, or unfortunately, back in prison.  In August 2006, focusing on a small population of offenders with histories of homelessness and chronic disabilities, CSH and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) began collaborating on a plan to address how the Department could utilize its resources to develop a supportive housing program.  The program was intended to build upon work already started as a result of the ODRC’s Ohio Plan for Productive Offender and Reentry and Recidivism Reduction as well as the collaboration between ODRC and the Department of Mental Health (ODMH).  The result of this collaboration is Returning Home-Ohio; the first pilot of its kind dedicated to providing housing and supports to offenders released from state correctional institutions who had been homeless prior to incarceration or who are at risk of homelessness upon their release.  Returning Home-Ohio is also the first pilot in the country to provide funds from a state corrections department for rental subsidy and support services and the first to offer post incarceration assistance equally to individuals under post release supervision and those that are not.