Area of Expertise: Justice and Reentry Systems

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

The Just in Reach Pay for Success (JIR PFS) project used upfront funding from investors to provide supportive housing to 349 individuals with disabilities and histories of homelessness who were exiting the Los Angeles County jail system. These participants received services from Intensive Case Management Service (ICMS) providers aligned with housing subsidies to ease their transition from jail and reentry into the community. The program focused on two primary objectives for the participants: increasing their stay in homes long-term and reducing recidivism. These measures were the basis for success payments made by Los Angeles County as part of the performance-based contract for the project. After four years of successful program operations, JIR PFS accomplished its objectives. The project’s success was sufficient to fully repay the amount provided by investors and yield a modest return on their investment.

This report will overview how the initiative came together and discuss its performance against the payment-related outcome measures. In addition, RAND Corporation, the project’s evaluator, conducted an impact evaluation and cost analysis, including a quasi-experimental assessment of the impacts and cost analysis of the program

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.

This data brief guides system providers on how to better coordinate data and services for families involved with systems, such as child welfare, homelessness response, behavioral health, education and justice.

A Renters Guide for Successful Apartment Living

This guide is for anyone who will be renting an apartment for the first time. The information here is intended to make the transition to this new lifestyle easier. In this guide book you will find helpful tips on apartment living like housekeeping issues, keys to a successful relationship with your landlord and other resources.

The Frequent User Services Enhancement (FUSE) initiative is a supportive housing program developed by CSH with support from various government agencies that provided housing and support services to individuals who were frequently cycling in and out of jails, homeless shelters, and hospital emergency rooms in 2008. A two-year follow up evaluation by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Policy found that FUSE participants spent significantly fewer days in jails and shelters and engaged in less cycling between public systems. These service use reductions resulted in significant cost savings to the government and tax payers. Download our two-page snapshot for the report highlights.