Area of Expertise: Justice and Reentry Systems

Twenty years ago, CSH developed the FUSE (Frequently Used Systems Engagement) model to deliver a transformative solution that aligns housing, health, and justice systems to provide supportive housing and coordinated care. With a proven track record of success, FUSE has become a national model for cross-sector collaboration and data-driven intervention.

For 20 years, CSH has partnered with communities across the country to identify people with complex needs who frequently cycle through emergency systems—such as shelters, hospitals, and jails—and connect them to the housing and services they need to break the cycle, achieve stability, and thrive.

This brief highlights 4 communities that have successfully implemented FUSE. Partners share their lessons learned and the lasting impact that FUSE has had on systems, residents, and communities.

This resource is intended to support health centers in identifying some important components to effective programming for HIV+ individuals leaving carceral settings to ensure smooth linkage to care and housing following discharge.

This guide helps supportive housing providers improve their relationships with local law enforcement. Fostering positive relationships between supportive housing staff and law enforcement can lead to better outcomes for supportive housing tenants and the broader community.

This includes reducing emergency response, addressing root causes around law enforcement engagement (e.g. mental health needs), enhancing public safety, and reducing criminalization of tenants. By working together, supportive housing providers and law enforcement can create a more compassionate and effective approach to addressing homelessness. 

This template is a resource for housing providers and property managers to use as they implement a background screening process that improves fairness and lowers barriers for people who have historically been excluded from housing opportunities.

The template can be used as is or adjusted to suit the needs of the community.

While the most fair and efficient process for filling housing units would be to eliminate background checks entirely, or use a policy that is the least restrictive possible, this template can help housing providers create a process that aims to improve fairness if they do opt to utilize a background screening.

This resource outlines best practices for housing providers who want to promote more fairness and reduce applicant denials based on conviction history. These best practices are intended to help housing providers screen more applicants in, rather than screen them out.

These best practices are non-exhaustive and are based on emerging practices informed by research and expertise from the housing field. Today, the housing field is continuing to evolve. Research is growing to support more fair screening practices and policies related to tenants with conviction or arrest histories.

This guide can be used as a starting point as providers begin developing tenant selection policies. The adoption of this guidance is encouraged but strictly voluntary, and does not carry with it any statutory conditions or requirements.

This resource presents frequently asked questions and answers regarding background screening processes. This FAQ resource addresses the most common concerns when building fair tenant screening policies for supportive housing.

The New York City Frequent Users System Engagement program (FUSE) was part of the CSH’s Returning Home Initiative, a multi-year effort of public, inter-agency collaboration and investment that provided supportive housing for people cycling between incarceration and homelessness. NYC FUSE targeted persons with recurring homelessness and incarceration, most of whom challenged also by health, mental health, and/or substance use issues.

Columbia University researchers evaluated FUSE by comparing program participants with a closely matched comparison group of “frequent users.” This evaluation found that supportive housing significantly reduced participants’ (re)admissions to and time spent in jail and homeless shelters and their use of crisis healthcare services. These reductions resulted in significantly lower costs for publicly supported services, offsetting housing and other program costs. Results have inspired jurisdictions throughout the US to launch similar efforts.

Now, 10 years later, the FUSE Long Term Study presents a unique opportunity to examine stable housing as a critical component of successful community reentry, not simply in the short term but over people’s lives.

How to Assess the Landscape of Background Screening in your Community

Criminal background screenings are a significant barrier to accessing housing for people involved in the justice system. It is crucial to understand how these screening procedures operate in each community to address the unfair impact of criminal background screenings in housing applications.

A “Landscape Assessment” can help identify trends in screening procedures and areas for reducing barriers. CSH designed this Landscape Assessment tool to help you conduct a comprehensive analysis of criminal background screening procedures in your community that can reduce barriers to housing and lead to recovery and stability for people involved in the justice system.

This toolkit uplifts the 2021 New Jersey Fair Chance in Housing legislation to provide insight to advocates in other jurisdictions working to expand access to housing for people with prior justice system involvement.

New Jersey was the first state to pass statewide Fair Chance in Housing legislation, also known as “ban the box” in housing, that limits the ability of landlords to consider criminal legal background checks at the beginning of the rental application process. This campaign passed with bipartisan support during the summer of 2021. This toolkit includes the following insights from New Jersey leaders of the Fair Chance in Housing campaign:

• Establishing the Campaign
• Building the Coalition
• Navigating Challenges
• Examples Other Jurisdictions Can Reference
• Understanding What’s in the Bill
• Key Lessons Learned

This report lays out immediate actions the Eric Adams’ Mayoral Administration, the Affordable Housing Leadership team, and New York City Council should take in 2022 to make innovative and fiscally responsible policy changes and investments in supportive housing.

Several thousand people on Rikers Island are experiencing homelessness and struggle with ongoing behavioral health needs. When released, these community members struggle to find adequate support, cycle through crisis systems (including shelter and emergency departments), and likely return to jail or prison. This group needs an intervention of supportive housing – a combination of affordable housing with voluntary, individualized services.

This report outlines the fiscal costs of supportive housing to serve the justice-impacted population, with key actions focused on:

1. Significant Investment in Supportive Housing
2. Improving Access to Supportive Housing
3. Increasing transparency by creating a reliable data and reporting infrastructure with key city agencies

These investments will support the de-carceration of Rikers Island. The investments will work to end the cycle of homelessness and institutionalization for an estimated 2,589 people in one year struggling with untreated or complex behavioral health needs who are incarcerated on Rikers Island.