September 29, 2006
SEEKING STABLE HOUSING FOR PEOPLE LEAVING PRISONS
The National AIDS Housing Coalition, of which Housing Works is a member, calls for YOUR help moving legislation critical to people living with HIV/AIDS through Congress.
A bipartisan group of members of Congress has introduced the Second Chance Act of 2005 (H.R. 1704 and S. 1934) focused on people who have been incarcerated reentering their communities. This bill would reauthorize and revise an existing grant program within the Department of Justice that provides money to states for reentry programs, create a federal interagency task force to study and coordinate policy, commission a number of research projects, including a study of barriers in federal policy to successful reentry, and authorize grants from the Justice Department directly to nonprofits for reentry programs.
Housing is a key part of any reentry strategy, and it is addressed in a number of ways in the Second Chance Act:
- Under the state grants program, housing activities are eligible uses of program funds, from providing housing directly to assisting people in securing housing from the private market or other housing programs. The bill authorizes $40 million per year for these grants, and it will be up to the states that apply how much of that will be used for housing.
- Another eligible use of funds is strengthening the capacity of prisoners' families to provide stable living situations - 80 percent of people leaving prison live with their families upon release.
- Housing is to be addressed in the strategic plan required of each state receiving funding.
- Housing is one of the performance outcomes that each state receiving funding is required to monitor and report to the Justice Department.
- The Department of Housing and Urban Development is a member of the newly created federal task force on reentry.
- Admissions issues in federal housing programs are among the barriers to successful reentry that are to be subject of a report to Congress by the federal task force.
- Housing is to be included as one of the variables in a study of the characteristics of people who leave prison or jail and do not commit new crimes, to be carried out by the National Institute of Justice.
- The bill reestablishes authority to place federal prisoners in halfway houses and other residential situations during the latter part of their terms, as well as encouraging residential substance abuse treatment upon release.
This legislation is a sensible, bipartisan, consensus bill that provides needed tools to help solve a very difficult problem.
Currently, the bill has been pre-conferenced and all outstanding issues have been resolved. We have heard that Hill staff members are attempting to attach the legislation to another bill or get it through as a stand-alone bill on suspension of the rules/unanimous consent. To influence this process, we are asking you to immediately weigh in with your members of Congress by either calling them or sending the attached letter expressing your support for passage of this legislation.
For fax numbers or email addresses, access your representative's web page at http://www.house.gov and your senator's web page at http://www.senate.gov. To reach your members of Congress by telephone, please call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your member's office.