Generocity: Krystine Sipple - June 7,2021
According to the Prison Policy initiative, people who have been to prison experience homelessness at a rate nearly 7 times higher than the general public, and people who have been incarcerated multiple times are twice as likely to be homeless than that.
So the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity (CEO) and JPMorgan Chase recently partnered to extend approximately $160,000 in funding to provide a full-time housing counselor from Clarifi to work with returning citizens as part of the federal Supervision to Aid Reentry (STAR) Program.
The STAR Program, also known as Reentry Court, is a program run by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Created in 2007, the program provides intensive support and wraparound services to Philadelphia residents on supervised release and has been nationally recognized for improving outcomes for individuals with high-recidivism risk and a history of violent crimes.
CEO solicited feedback from STAR participants to inform their investment in this program. It found that obtaining affordable housing was one of the biggest obstacles facing the participants upon their release.