The State of Georgia provides other resources to help formerly incarcerated people find housing. In August 2018, the Georgia Dept. of Corrections opened the Metro Reentry Facility outside of Atlanta. There, incarcerated people slated for release from prison within the next 18 months receive intensive counseling, vocational training and housing support.
The state sometimes transitions formerly incarcerated people into temporary housing. As of May 2020, there were 49 active Re-entry Partnership Housing (RPH) providers in Georgia, including three in Savannah. According to the Georgia Dept. of Community Supervision, RPH is a means to provide housing to formerly incarcerated people who have been granted a release by the Parole Board but remain in prison due solely to having no residential option.
When DCS launched the RPH program in 2006, the state paid RPH programs, including Union Mission, $325 per month per person, to provide wraparound services — room and board, food, mental health counseling and more — to formerly incarcerated people on probation. The state has since increased that figure to $600 per month per person. Union Mission typically houses 12 people, in three rooms with four beds in each room. When DCS launched the RPH program, those who qualified for the RPH program could stay for up to three months, then six months. Now, those who qualify for the RPH program can stay for up to nine months.
Once they graduate from the RPH program, Union Mission offers formerly incarcerated people multiple housing options: emergency housing at Grace House, a 32-bed dormitory across the street from its main office; and Beyond Grace, a 28-bed, two-year program. Union Mission also offers its own landlord program called Dutchtown, of which they offer 48 apartment units. Through the coordinated entry at the Chatham-Savannah Authority for the Homeless, Union Mission also offers special needs housing, including housing for women with disabilities at the Barnes Center, which contains 13 beds. Union Mission works with private landlords to help place formerly incarcerated people into their units, of which there are 57. Union Mission pays utilities, rent and other expenditures, so long as the formerly incarcerated person meets the 30% average median income to live in the apartment complex.
Union Mission's programs are successful: 78% of clients leave with stable housing, according to CEO Mike Traynor.
"Those are great," said Traynor. "But you have to have certain things happening in your life to be eligible for those programs. And if you're not eligible for those programs, then you have to go in the private sector. And that's where the challenge of affordable housing comes up."
Credit: Union Mission
Credit: Union Mission
Despite the program's success, the state suspended the RPH program in July of this year, which meant Union Mission, and all RPH programs across the state, couldn’t take any more placements. In meetings with Union Mission, said Traynor, DCS did not explain why it had suspended the program, just that it was “restructuring” the program and it would “come back in place” in the fall. A DCS representative told Union Mission that because of the restructuring, Union Mission and other RPH programs, would receive fewer referrals, meaning it would house fewer formerly incarcerated people. The state restarted the program in October. DCS did not respond to multiple requests in regards to how and why the RPH program was temporarily suspended.
"By them cutting the beds, we aren't getting the [formerly incarcerated people] like we used to, which is hurting the population," Lamonica Graham, Union Mission's Program Director of Emergency Services and Permanent Supportive Housing, said in late October. "I've gotten two calls today and eight last week to see if their child qualifies for RPH, then I have to refer them back to DCS. And they have a whole different protocol. So really, it needs to start when they're in prison because once they get out, there's nothing I can do until someone refers them."
“I have to say it's been an excellent program for the people who've been in it,” Traynor said. “And getting that [program] back up, I think, is critical to the success of those people that are eligible for it.”
Still, RPH, is only a stopgap on the road to re-entry. As Traynor explained, the biggest obstacle formerly incarcerated people face when they graduate from his program, “It’s the lack of affordable housing in our community.”
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Union Mission's re-entry program shows success, but lack of affordable housing remains an issue
