Connecticut Study Finds Half of Homeless Shelter Users Were Formerly Incarcerated

Officials in Seattle drew criticism from activists in December when they decided to sweep a homeless encampment in Cal Anderson park despite warnings from public health officials. Dozens of people experiencing homelessness were displaced, and 24 people were arrested a week before Christmas. The source notes that cities including Denver and Reno have also continued police sweeps of homeless encampments during the pandemic.

The Prison Policy Initiative, whose former policy analyst wrote the piece, reported earlier research linking incarceration and homelessness. Its 2018 report found that formerly incarcerated people are almost 10 times more likely to be homeless than the general public. Other national data cited in the piece shows that 50,000 people enter shelters directly from correctional facilities each year. The piece also states that homelessness is a major predictor of involvement with the juvenile justice system.

New data from the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness (CCEH) addresses a gap the authors described: there had been no national data on how many people experiencing homelessness have prior criminal justice involvement. CCEH matched records from the 450,000 people admitted to the Connecticut Department of Corrections, the state’s joint prison and jail system, with records of the 17,226 people who used a shelter in the CCEH network between January 2016 and January 2019. The network includes 88% of all emergency shelters in the state. The analysis found that half of shelter users, 8,187 people, were formerly incarcerated, and that 1 in 5 shelter users had been released from prison in the previous three years.

The study also found racial disparities. Of the 8,187 formerly incarcerated people experiencing homelessness, 35% were Black, compared with 10% of Connecticut’s general population. The authors wrote that this reflects the disproportionate impact of incarceration and homelessness on Black Americans, and they said it aligns with their national finding that Black formerly incarcerated people are significantly more likely to experience homelessness than white formerly incarcerated people.

Among people who both used shelters and were released from the Department of Corrections in the past three years, most (69%) were homeless before their incarceration. The authors wrote that many were incarcerated for relatively minor offenses, citing data that 80% of those sentenced were released at the end of their sentence rather than to a halfway house or parole supervision, and that 75% of those held pretrial were released by the court without bond. The source also quotes researchers at Yale Law School, who wrote that laws in Connecticut cities prohibit a person without a bed from sleeping on a park bench and restrict people without access to food from asking for money to buy something to eat. The authors argue these rules put people experiencing homelessness at high risk of arrest, even though these offenses pose no threat to public safety, and that arrest and incarceration make it harder to secure housing, jobs, and public assistance.

The data also show that 28% of people who used shelters and were released from the Department of Corrections during that period reported becoming homeless only after their last release. The authors said this points to how little support incarcerated people receive after release and how difficult it is to regain stability. In New Haven, a more detailed CCEH analysis found that 54% of formerly incarcerated homeless people had been admitted to prison six or more times.

CCEH is working with the Connecticut Department of Corrections to launch the department’s Re-entry Housing Assistance Program, which aims to locate housing before release for individuals identified as at risk of becoming homeless. Where the department cannot find a housing option, CCEH’s network of service providers is available to create and carry out housing plans, also beginning before release. The authors recommend that other states and cities create clear systems to help recently released people find homes, “ban the box” on housing applications, end the criminalization of homelessness, and expand social services for people experiencing homelessness with a focus on “Housing First,” a reference to the policy approach in the source. (Proverbs 31:8-9) (Use the same bracket form for the scripture reference, see below.)

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