Program to create housing options for the formerly incarcerated

LANSING – “It was a one bedroom, moldy basement apartment,” said LaWanda Hollister, referring to one of the first places she rented when released after 34 years in prison.

Hollister, now a Washtenaw County resident, is the coordinator of Nation Outside’s Women’s Chapter and a volunteer organizer for the American Friends Service Committee.

Nation Outside is an advocacy organization for people leaving incarceration. It works on fair housing and voting policies.

“It’s so hard to find housing that you basically try to accept whatever it is you can get,” said Hollister. 

“You may not get anything else.”

Hollister was barely 18 when she was sentenced to a minimum of 40 years for second-degree murder. She was 17 when the crime was committed.

“The entire navigation of re-entry is very difficult,” she said. 

Formerly incarcerated individuals are 10 times more likely to experience homelessness than the general population, according to the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.

Hollister was released in 2020 and had then served two years on parole in Michigan, separating her from family in Chicago.

“I never lived on my own. I went from my mother’s house to the penitentiary,” she said.

Despite federal fair housing laws, Hollister said she still hears similar stories of discrimination against ex-offenders.

One happened in early April, she said.

According to Hollister, a man with a criminal record went into a real estate office seeking housing, and someone told him “flat out: no criminals, no felons.”

Hollister says the COVID-19 pandemic was the main reason she could get her first apartment despite her record. 

She lived in a college town during the pandemic, students moved out and property owners relaxed their restrictions on the types of tenants they accepted to fill their empty units, she said.

Kim Trent, the deputy director for prosperity in Labor and Economic Opportunity, said, “Housing is a challenge for every segment of Michiganders.”

“But this is one subset of Michiganders that particularly struggle with being able to secure housing,” she said of formerly incarcerated people. 

The department has created a pilot program to give grants to nonprofit housing services to increase opportunities for people with criminal records. 

The program received $600,000 in state funding, with applicants being able to receive grants of between $200,000 and $400,000.

Applicants can include community housing services, nonprofits, foundations and economic development organizations.

Grant recipients will work with property owners interested in renting to formerly incarcerated people. The money could be used for emergency rental payments, security deposits, first months’ rent, and related purposes.

The department anticipates giving out one grant for a rural community and another for an urban community, said Sophie Ordway. She works with Trent as a data and policy fellow at the University of Michigan’s Youth Policy Lab.

“What we have found is, even with success stories, people who maybe get an apprenticeship and get a solid job after they get out find it difficult to find housing because they have that record,” said Trent.

While the new program focuses on housing, Trent said it also could open up job, training and education opportunities.

The application deadline is May 16, and successful applicants will be notified on June 13. 

Ordway said, “We want to see that applicants are going to be partnering with employment services so they are setting people up for success when they get placed in housing.”

Although the program’s team is looking forward to the pilot program, some people working with ex-offenders express doubts as to how successful it will be.

Hollister, who now owns her own home, said the program might only create more halfway houses and not help anyone in the long-term.

“There needs to be more services,” said Hollister.

“It’s not out of greed, it’s out of necessity.”

Chad Audi, the president and chief executive officer of Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries, said, “My fear with this program is that landlords might have an incentive to put all formerly incarcerated people in the same area, not being able to merge with the whole community.” 

The mission began in 1909 as a soup kitchen with a housing shelter and now provides transitional and permanent housing services, addiction services and more. 

“I would say probably 50% of our [shelter] population have been incarcerated at least one time,” said Audi.

When he began volunteering at the organization, “I started seeing what people went through and what’s the success rate, and what kind of people we serve,” he said. 

“It really broke my heart.”

Lack of a job is one challenge to finding housing with a criminal record, he said.

“If we just provide them housing and food, we’re not doing them or the community a favor.”

As for the pilot program’s possible success, Audi said “I hope it works, but I’m not very hopeful.”