Community Supervision, Housing Insecurity, and Homelessness

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00027162221113983
• Published date: 01 May 2022
• Date: 01 May 2022
• Subject Matter: Promoting Social Integration: Health, Housing, and Community

152 ANNALS, AAPSS, 701, May 2022

DOI: 10.1177/00027162221113983

Community

Supervision,

Housing

Insecurity, and

Homelessness

By

DALLAS AUGUSTINE

and

MARGOT KUSHEL

1113983ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYCOMMUNITY SUPERVISION AND HOUSING INSECURITY

research-article2022

In recent decades, the United States has seen the

simultaneous rise of mass incarceration and homeless-

ness. The two crises are driven by the same structural

factors and interact with one another, exacerbating

their detrimental effects in a feedback loop. People

under community supervision face many barriers to

housing, putting them at high risk of experiencing

homelessness in the months following release. People

who experience homelessness are at heightened risk of

criminal justice involvement for offenses like violating

the terms of their community supervision as they

engage in survival behaviors in public spaces. This arti-

cle presents evidence-based approaches to improving

housing strategies for reentry populations, preventing

homelessness among those in community supervision,

and rehousing members of the reentry community expe-

riencing homelessness. It concludes with recommenda-

tions for policymakers interested in improving housing

outcomes and overall reentry success for people on

community supervision.

Keywords: reentry; parole; probation; housing policy;

criminal record

Introduction

In recent decades, the United States witnessed

the simultaneous rise of mass incarceration and

homelessness. The two crises interact with and

worsen one another. The dynamics of mass

Dallas Augustine, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow with the

Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at the

University of California, San Francisco. Her research

addresses punishment and inequality, with focuses on

incarceration and other forms of criminal legal contact,

homelessness, and employment.

Margot Kushel, MD, is a professor of medicine at the

University of California, San Francisco, and Director

of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations and

the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at

Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma

Center. Her research focuses on reducing the burden of

homelessness and housing instability on health.

Correspondence: margot.kushel@ucsf.edu

COMMUNITY SUPERVISION AND HOUSING INSECURITY 153

incarceration and homelessness have disproportionately harmed people of color,

particularly Black Americans, who are overrepresented in prisons and jails and

are more likely to experience homelessness (Pettit and Western 2004; U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD] 2021). In 2018, there

were 6.7 million people across the country under some form of correctional con-

trol; of these, 2.3 million were incarcerated in prisons, jails, and other detention

centers, and 4.5 million adults were on community supervision under probation

or parole (Jones 2018). Although probation and parole usually occur after an

incarceration, people on community supervision who break the rules of their

supervision may be returned to prison or jail. In 2016, approximately 168,000

people were incarcerated for a technical violation of their probation or parole

(i.e., solely for breaking a rule related to their supervision, not for a new crime)

(Kaeble and Cowhig, 2018).

Alongside incarceration rates, homelessness rose dramatically in the United

States since the 1970s and 1980s due to a confluence of factors, including the

declining availability of affordable housing (U.S. Interagency Council on

Homelessness 2019), the increase in income inequality (U.S. Interagency

Council on Homelessness 2019), the ongoing deleterious impacts of structural

racism on access to intergenerational wealth and housing for Black households

(Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority 2018), and the rise of mass incarcera-

tion (The Urban Institute 2020). The last Point-in-Time (PIT) count, an annual

count conducted by HUD, found 580,466 people experiencing homelessness in

the United States on one night in early 2020 (Henry etal., 2021). HUD estimated

that 39 percent of people experiencing homelessness during the PIT count were

unsheltered (e.g., living outdoors, in abandoned buildings, or in vehicles). The

PIT count measures a moment in time and, as such, underestimates the number

of people who experience homelessness over the course of the year.

For every 100 extremely low-income (ELI) households in the United States,1

there are only 37 units of rental housing affordable and accessible (National Low

Income Housing Coalition 2021b). Areas with the highest housing costs tend to

have the lowest availability of ELI housing and the highest prevalence of home-

lessness. The economic disruption associated with the COVID-19 pandemic has

led to increases in households facing potential eviction due to falling behind in

rent (National Low Income Housing Coalition 2021a).

The simultaneous rise in incarceration and homelessness is no coincidence

because each phenomenon exacerbates the other: homelessness is a risk factor

for criminal justice involvement (including incarceration), and criminal justice

involvement (including a history of incarceration) is a risk factor for homeless-

ness (Garcia-Grossman etal. 2021). Formerly incarcerated people are ten times

more likely than the general population to be homeless (Couloute 2018), due to

NOTE: The authors would like to thank Bruce Western and David Harding for the opportu-

nity to contribute to this volume. Thank you to Cheyenne Garcia for assistance with formatting

and Jasmin Sandelson for her feedback on an earlier manuscript draft. This work was sup-

ported by the REFORM Alliance and received additional support from the Benioff

Homelessness and Housing Initiative at the University of California, San Francisco.