Spotlight Announcement

1/31/2006: Chittenden County (VT) Develops Cooperative Regional Reentry Housing Plan

Six municipalities in Chittenden County (VT) have endorsed a strategic and targeted response to address the housing needs of people returning to the county from jail and prison. The Housing Plan was developed by a Regional Advisory Group convened by the Burlington Housing Authority.

Download the Housing Plan for Offenders Returning to Chittenden County.

A Regional Advisory Committee comprised of municipal officials, law enforcement, corrections personnel, and service providers studied the current housing needs of re-entering individuals and the availability of other services and resources. The group realized that the lack of appropriate housing helps to drive prison overcrowding: a significant number of the state's Department of Corrections (DOC) inmates are held beyond their minimum sentence pending the identification of appropriate housing.

Components of the plan include:

• - Creating and funding a housing specialist position charged with assessing the needs of returning offenders and helping them secure housing (a specialist at the Burlington Housing Authority has been providing this type of support since January 2005 through a DOC grant);
• - Creating 30 - 35 more transitional housing units (beds which come with supportive services) to meet ongoing demand by supporting two pending projects; and
• - Beginning comprehensive reentry planning well before prisoners are released by expanding jail-based transition units that day-furlough inmates may use to look for housing and employment.

The group also identified goals, indicators to measure success, quantified the housing need within this population, and created an implementation strategy that delegated responsibilities to different partners.

The Reentry Policy Council (RPC) periodically features efforts to address different aspects of prisoner reentry. For more on reentry and housing you may visit policy statements 19 (Housing) and 30 (Housing Systems) in the Report of the Re-Entry Policy Council, and read about the RPC's Reentry and Housing Initiative.