After 13 years in prison, Maria Garza needed a place to live.
But finding housing was not easy for Garza, who left Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln in June 2021.
While living in homes of friends and family, as well as hotel rooms and her car, Garza also struggled to continue at Northwestern University’s prison education program, which she started while incarcerated.
“While I’m sitting there trying to take my class and learn, I’m trying to figure out where I’m gonna sleep,” Garza said. “It was depressing. Things got to a point where I sometimes wished I was back in prison.”
Garza’s experiences were not unusual.
A significant portion of more than 10,000 people released from Illinois state prisons each year are at risk of housing instability, according to a new study by the Illinois Reentry Council and Loyola University’s Center for Criminal Justice.
Policymakers, researchers and advocates have long been long aware of the need for housing for people leaving incarceration, with criminal records, poor credit history and no job.
The survey, for the first time, links data to that need, said Dave Olson, professor and co-director of the Center for Criminal Justice.
“For us to be able to say this percent of all the people coming out of prison need housing … it puts a better perspective on the problem,” Olson said. He added that a survey on incarcerated people’s housing needs has never been done before in Illinois.
The project, conducted at four state correctional centers earlier this year, surveyed almost 1,000 people on their housing needs. Volunteers, many of whom have experience with incarceration, helped administer the survey.
In the three years before their incarceration, more than a quarter of men and nearly half of women reported experiencing homelessness or living in temporary housing, and 18% of men and 29% of women said their housing had been unstable “all the time.”
Meanwhile, less than a third of the respondents said they had not experienced any housing instability in the three-year period.
Sixteen percent of men and 31% of women also had experienced evictions in their lifetime.
Ahmadou Dramé, director of the Illinois Justice Project, said that while he’s well aware of the scope of housing instability for incarcerated people, the findings still stood out to him.
“I just was shocked by how large the number was. I didn’t expect it to be that significant,” Dramé said. “Consider that I’ve spent the better part of the last 10 years working on reentry housing issues. I think that says a lot.”
Dramé’s group has been pushing for an initiative named Home for Good, a $100 million investment to fund reentry housing and services. A pair of bills was filed in the state legislature earlier this year but was not voted on before the end of the last session.
Most of the survey respondents are expected to be released soon. Among those who were expecting their release this year, most said they plan on living with their partners, family or friends. Yet, many said they have not discussed monetary arrangements, like whether they would contribute to rent or mortgage, or the length of their stay.
Also, nearly 70% of the respondents said they have “set and confirmed” their housing, and more than 80% said they believe their living arrangement will be safe and supportive.
Olson said it’s not a surprise that many people who will soon be released are optimistic about their future. That optimism contrasts with the challenges of making housing arrangements while incarcerated, which tend to be steeper the longer one has been in prison.
Four years ago, the housing problems motivated Garza to co-found Challenge II Change, a nonprofit created to provide temporary housing and reentry services to formerly incarcerated people. She said the group has housed and served about two dozen people.
Garza said it’s not uncommon for previously incarcerated people to have their housing plans fall through — friends and family that become unwelcoming or a lease not working out — forcing them to seek help from temporary or transitional housing providers.
Dramé said the new survey’s findings will help his group revise the Home for Good proposal, which he expects to be ready in the coming weeks.
The first batch of findings is also a “first cut” of the survey data, Olson said. He said further analysis will focus on identifying the size and needs of specific populations among soon-to-be-released people.
For example, the survey found 15 percent of male respondents and 23 percent of women have experienced housing instability immediately before their incarceration, report mental health issues during incarceration and plan to live with children after their release. These different challenges could compound this group’s risk of housing instability.
Garza said housing should be “at the top of the list of reentry work.” She urges state legislators to fund the Home for Good initiative.
From her own experience, she said programs that provide records, trade skills or other support services can’t be successful if the people released from prison have no stable housing in the first place.
“You’re not going to have a successful reentry, you’re not going to have a successful reintegration if there is housing instability,” Garza said. “Secure housing, stable housing, safe housing will answer all of your reentry issues.”