One in Four Podcast

Housing and Re-Entry

Episode Summary

Welcome to the 8th episode of the One in Four podcast, which stands for, “One in Four adult Americans has a criminal record.” This is a show that seeks to Humanize, Educate, and Elevate conversations about the re-entry process of people who have experienced incarceration. In this episode, we will focus on the topic of housing and reentry. Having a safe place to live, in addition to finding stable employment, is often one of the greatest challenges that people face when they come out of prison. This episode is dedicated to Heidi Christiansen, a former resident of Friends of Guest House, a transitional home for women located in Alexandria, Virginia. Heidi gifted us with her personal story over the summer, prior to passing away.

Episode Notes

Welcome to the 8th episode of the One in Four podcast, which stands for, “One in Four adult Americans has a criminal record.” This is a show that seeks to Humanize, Educate, and Elevate conversations about the re-entry process of people who have experienced incarceration.

In this episode, we will focus on the topic of housing and reentry. Having a safe place to live, in addition to finding stable employment, is often one of the greatest challenges that people face when they come out of prison. For starters, there are few affordable housing options available in many urban areas – the Washington D.C. greater metro area included. There is also the added issue of stigma, specifically the fear that everyone who has a felony record is dangerous and cannot be trusted. This means that many neighborhoods are off limits to any type of housing arrangement that would allow people coming out of prison to live there and rebuild their lives.

A report by the Prison Policy Initiative published in 2018, states that people who have been incarcerated are almost 10 times more likely to become homeless than the general population. This number is much higher for women of color who face unique barriers to housing and other social resources necessary to succeed after incarceration. The report also states that people who have been incarcerated multiple times are twice as likely to be homeless as those who are returning from their first prison term.

In this episode, my co-host Bea Spadacini will be speaking with Alicia Horton, Executive Director of Thrive D.C., a local non-profit thatworks to end homelessness in the nation’s capital. Bea will also be speaking to Kari Galloway, the Executive Director of Friends of Guest House, a Northern Virginia organization that provides transitional housing and other support services for women who reenter society after incarceration. You will also hear from two women who went through this particular program. To find out a few additional facts about housing for Returning Citizens check out our sidecast to this episode.

This episode is dedicated to Heidi Christiansen, a former Friends of Guest House resident, who gifted us with her personal story over the summer, prior to passing away. Her death, like that of another young man we interviewed earlier this season, is a stark reminder of the many challenges people face when they come out of prison.

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Hosts: Bea M. Spadacini and Tim Nicholson

Episode Transcription

EPISODE 8 SCRIPT

Entrepreneurship and Re-Entry

NARRATION 1 (INTRO)

In this episode, my co-host Bea Spadacini will be speaking with Alicia Horton, Executive Director of Thrive D.C., a local non-profit that works to end homelessness in the nation’s capital. Bea will also be speaking to Kari Galloway, the Executive Director of Friends of Guest House, a Northern Virginia organization that provides transitional housing and other support services for women who reenter society after incarceration. You will also hear from two women who went through this particular program. To find out a few additional facts about housing for Returning Citizens check out our sidecast to this episode.

BEA: (Narration and question): Alicia Horton is the Executive Director of Thrive D.C., a community-based organization located in the nation’s capital that offers day services for homeless people and advocates on their behalf for more support and affordable housing. Alicia, a native Washingtonian, told me that she is a “recovering attorney” who spent most of her life working in the non-profit sector. A few years after attending law school at Catholic University in Washington D.C., Alicia joined the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and worked alongside Jim and Sarah Brady for 15 years. But her interest in working with the homeless started when she was a public health student in New Orleans, before going to law school. Her work with homeless youth affected by HIV/AIDS, is what ultimately brought her back to working on these very issues in the nation’s capital.

Bea: Alicia, tell us a little bit, why is housing a major barrier for people who get out of prison? This is one of the populations that you serve.

Alicia: Well, you know, I think housing is a huge issue for our returning citizens, primarily because the current prison system doesn't do very much to help ensure that people are being released into accommodations that will really provide, you know, housing for them. Unless you are released to a facility, you're pretty much on your own. And the housing barriers loom large for individuals who now have a record. And, you know, there's been some federal legislation or some housing policy through HUD that really helped people discriminate against individuals who had records so that there was a blanket ban on on folks who would come and, you know, be applying for housing through HUD or for supported housing of that sort and and they if they had a record there, they weren't even looked at. So. And this was allowable under the HUD regulations. And there has been some effort now to pull back on that so that now landlords and the housing authorities can kind of make decisions on a case by case basis.

Alicia: But that still leaves many people without the ability to reintegrate with their families because perhaps their family is in public housing. And there, you know, and then that would put their whole family in jeopardy of losing their housing if they are not allowed to live there.

Bea: So, to clarify for our listeners, if a returning citizen has a family that is willing to help them and take them in, but they're in public housing, they may not be able to live with them. So that also breaks a huge important support.

Alicia: Yeah, exactly. I think the whole point of family reunification and having that kind of, you know, loving support is now disintegrated because they're not allowed to live there and be a part of that family unit in that way anymore.

Bea: Can you explain for our listeners the difference between halfway homes, transitional housing, the different kind of options, If one cannot go back to their family?

Alicia: So, a halfway house in the most traditional sense is a facility that a returning citizen is released to from prison. So, and this is a very structured environment. They have a lot of rules around when you can leave and when you come back and you sign in and out, it's all very, very structured. And a lot of times the individuals are released to these facilities, but they're still in custody. So (uhm) So the Bureau of Prisons still is managing these individuals. So, you know, it's a very tight environment. And then they can be released from that facility into the community.

Alicia: A transitional program is another kind of program that offers support and and housing for a period of time. I think the it's designed to give you some, you know, some short supports for a certain number of months, three to six months, maybe a year in hopes that you can kind of get on your feet and get stabilized, and then you are able to kind of realize some more independence and can move out and be on your own.

Bea: So this sounds like a more optimal solution. Are there enough transitional homes, housing in D.C.?

Alicia: Certainly not. We find returning citizens everyday who are without housing. It's one of the reasons why we as a homeless services agency started working in the reentry world because so many of our clients were returning citizens who were really struggling with finding housing and finding the same support. And were still here after months and months after they'd been released, you know (laugh) We wanted to. We hoped that people would be released and be able to step into some reentry programing and then, you know, be launched into their new lives. But that is, certainly not the case.

NARRATION 2: Many people who come out of prison have nowhere to go and they eventually end up in shelters, which are often not a preferred option. In many of these facilities, staff is overworked, there are not enough case managers to address the specific needs of clients (including mental health needs) and the homeless can only spend nights there.

Alicia: So, in our current shelter system, most of the shelters you have to leave by 7:00 a.m. There may be some that have, you know, an hour or two difference in that respect. They may leave at night. But, but yeah. And then they should have case managers there. But, you know, it's a big population that utilize those shelters. And I would assert that they are way overworked. And I think that people suffer in terms of real support through those shelter facilities.

NARRATION 3: Thrive D.C. fills in the gaps for people who live in and out of shelters, many of whom have been incarcerated. The organization provides two-types of services: an emergency tier that offers hot meals, a place to shower, laundry services, and even receive mail. Twice per week, they provide a bag of groceries for families in need and on Fridays people can pick up fresh produce and have access to more nutritious food. The second tier of services are designed to help people take small steps towards self-sufficiency.

Alicia: And those include our workforce development programs, our reentry programs. We also have a substance abuse program for folks who are working toward or trying to maintain their sobriety. We also have a computer lab so folks can come in and use the computer and connect with family, apply for jobs, whatever they need to use the computers for.

Alicia: And we also have a victim assistance program because so many of our homeless neighbors are victimized on a daily basis. So we have brought in some services to help people navigate the legal system with respect to trying to report and or realize a different set of support resource resources after they've been victimized by a violent crime.

Alicia: I'd say probably 75% of our client community suffer with some form of mental illness and or dual diagnosis of substance abuse and mental illness. I think, you know, we are daily impacted by the the untreated mental illness that our clients present with. We are a very low barrier program. So you can walk in the door here and receive services without a lot of questions about eligibility and and that kind of thing. So people present here in sometimes very raw circumstances, and and we recognize that mental health is often at the at the core of their issues: Untreated mental health issues. So we grapple with that quite a bit and we work very closely with the Department of Behavioral Health.

Bea: Speaking of public health, What is your take on health issues that affect the homeless and and affect our society as a result? So public health.

Alicia: The biggest public health issue I would say that is affecting this community now is a substance abuse. And our community is really reeling from right now what is called K2 on the street, And it's a synthetic marijuana that is often laced with fentanyl. And we are seeing just devastating results of people using that drug on a, on a mass scale and to the extent what the city has issued in the last probably year, six or seven major medical alert, because people are literally dying in the street. You know, a bad batch will hit the streets and and literally people will use and then and die on a street corner. And we are seeing more and more of that. And I think that is probably the biggest health crisis right now for this community.

NARRATION 4: The day Bea visited Alicia at Thrive D.C. she noticed a flier pinned on a bulletin board at the entrance that announced a hearing in the Mayor’s office. So she asked Alicia, how does the organization advocate for affordable housing in the nation’s capital.

Alicia: I am a member of the Interagency Council on Homelessness and we are addressing housing on many levels, from permanent supportive housing to shelter stays. So we are working to make sure that there are opportunities for people to not sleep outside. And again, that ranges along the spectrum of housing opportunities. But what we would love to have people do is call their council members and and say that they care about affordable housing in their communities and they want to make sure that people who are low income have chances to live in this community.

Alicia: I don't think people realize what it means when we are not able to support income earners at every level in a major city like Washington, D.C.. And when folks who are working in entry level positions can't afford to live in this city, then we lose a whole unit of individuals who are doing important work (laughs) that people don't think about.

Bea: They Take it for granted.

Alicia: They Really do. You take it for granted that who is, you know, helping to facilitate the cleaning of your office building or who is helping to, you know, clean the streets or, you know, these kinds of positions that go largely unseen. But this is a workforce that this city needs. And if they can't afford to live here, we won't have people here to do those jobs.

Bea: My question about affordable housing also has to do with the public perception of perhaps having Section 8 housing or people of lower income mingled with maybe richer neighborhoods. So there is a work also to educate the residents of the city about housing and the importance of access to affordable housing. Do you do any advocacy work for, for the greater public?

Alicia: I spend a lot of time attending community meetings and talking about the issue of NIMBY, which is not in my backyard.

Alicia: And really trying to educate people that, you know, in an urban environment there will always be what I call urban drama (laughs) but uhm that that happens across economic lines and that this is not relegated to low income communities and that we all can share and helping individuals who have less income to live comfortably and supported and all communities throughout the city and that we can't push people out. It's just it's not who we are as Americans. (laughs) You know, it's not who we are as Washingtonians. I don't think it represents that that attitude. I don't think represents the true nature of the city. And I think, you know, we are working to help people understand how to build and combine these communities in a fashion that is, again, dignified and supported and ultimately becomes a community instead of this us and them, kind of mentality.

NARRATION 5: One example of such a community is in the town of Alexandria, in Northern Virginia, just a few miles outside of Washington D.C. Nestled in a quiet residential neighborhood, Friends of Guest House is one of the oldest transitional homes for women who have experienced incarceration in the State of Virginia. From the outside, it looks like a charming bed and breakfast with a sitting patio, a rocking chair, and potted plants. Established in 1974, this home has helped over 3,000 women transition back to society after incarceration. Less than 10% of the women who come through Friends of Guest House return to jail or prison. Unfortunately, the demand to get into this facility far outstrips its capacity, even after a recent expansion at a different location. Friends of Guest House receive an average of 400 applications per year and can only accommodate 31 women at a time. Kari Galloway is the Executive Director. Bea and I met her in the summer of 2019.

Kari: So we get a lot of applications and we're not able to help everybody because sometimes we don't have a bed available when they get out. But recently, two women that were waiting to come in to the program went home to wait for their beds and overdosed while they were waiting for a bed to open. So our preference is people come bed to bed.

Bea: Can you explain bed to bed?

Kari: So, they would leave the jail or the prison and be transported directly to us. So there would be no downtime, no at home time, no go out and run around time. They just come in and then when they first get to us, they for the first three days, they cannot go out. They can't go leave the house unless they went with a staff person, of course.

Bea: Can you explain to me why is that so important?

Kari: We have a contract with the Virginia Department of Corrections, and it's their rule, but it's a really good rule. I think even without the contract, we would see the efficacy of it. It's it's just a time for people to kind of get their feet under them. Take a deep breath and start thinking about what that what their futures are going to be like. They don't need to run out and start, you know, jumping on buses or, you know, being out. They just need to to just kind of, like I said, take a deep breath and start to think about, OK, what's next?

Kari: About 70 percent of them are mothers and about 70 percent of their children are under 18.

Bea: So, for example, what is the reunification like with their families? How do you prepare them for that coming together with their own children after this been away and difficult transition?

Kari: Having family reunification and support is the single most important factor for women to not risk the debate, not go back to jail in prison. So we know it's critical. We know a lot of those relationships are really fraught and have been. There are a lot of complications. There are a lot of feelings, emotions, and and it's hard. It's really, really hard. It's hard for the women. It's hard for their children. It's hard for the whole family.

Kari: You know, when you incarcerate a woman, you really incarcerate the whole family. Women are so tied to caregiving roles and to their. You know, just that whole family piece. So that means that while a lot of the structure of the fabric of the family gets torn apart when the women go in and it's very hard on them, they feel guilty. They feel a lot of shame. A lot of the women have had a lot of trauma and neglect. They've been abused as children, been in violent relationships with partners, often sexually assaulted or turn to the use of their own bodies.

Kari: And they've never had much therapy, you know. So they they've used, a lot of the women have drug and alcohol issues and they've used that as a way to self-medicate for the pain that they're feeling. And and so then, you know, so you have that piece and then you have the trying to put your life back together with your family. It's it's really it's really difficult.

NARRATION 6: Heidi Christiansen came through Friends of Guest House after having been incarcerated for 17 months. She was raised in a Southern family in Louisiana. She earned a master’s degree and had a good life ahead of her until she married the wrong man.

Heidi: I am, you know, was raised by a very southern, very wonderful parents. And I married a succession of wonderful Southern men, the last of which was not so wonderful. He was wildly successful and extraordinarily violent. So I guess the pattern at that time was, you know, broken bones, broken feet, broken eye socket, pretty much whatever arms you go to the ER, they treat, they medicate and they release. And so that happens over a period of 10 or 15 years. You find yourself with bones that may be broken, but a fully intact addiction to pain medication, because you've been on it, over and over and over again.

Heidi: What happens is uhm ultimately, You're not gonna be getting enough pain medication. I came here from New Orleans and to help a family member with a business. And Virginia writes very light handedly where Louisiana writes very heavy handedly. So when I came here, I wasn't being prescribed the same amount of pain medication. So ultimately, I was introduced to heroin. And you're not a heroin addict for very long before you ever impacted with the justice system. That is just the nature of the beast.

Heidi: But, you know, addiction levels the playing field and you, most of the women that come through Friends of Guest House come through here because of some sort of trauma that brought them to incarceration, whether it was sexual abuse or emotional abuse or physical abuse. It was some sort of untreated, unaddressed trauma that they ultimately then medicated themselves, which is which is what really happened to me over time. And then you end up incarcerated. But through that whole process, what you ultimately end up doing is deconstructing not only your life, but your familial support systems, your professional support systems. So when you are released from incarceration, you have nothing.

NARRATION 7: Friends of Guest House offers a residential program that lasts six months and helps women like Heidi become self-sufficient, while living in a safe and supportive environment. Women work with a case manager on an individualized reentry plan that includes life skills training, mental health and substance abuse counseling, and mentoring and optional GED-tutoring. Residents also enroll in a workforce and life development program that helps them identify a fulfilling career and succeed after they are employed. The organization also offers an Aftercare Program that helps women transition out of the residential program and back into their communities, as well as an Outreach Program for women who are transitioning directly into the community from incarceration. Bea asked Kari what makes Friend of Guest House unique as a program.

Kari: What makes it unique is that we're, the staff is really passionate. We all really believe in the women and we believe that they deserve opportunities to realize their future and to, you know, get back on the good foot. And so we're very committed to that work. And I think the women feel that. I think they understand that. And so I you know, I just know that we're a real different kind of bird. You know, not a lot of people do this residential thing and we're, Our offices are right in their home. And so we get to, you know, interact with them a lot throughout the day.

Heidi: Had I been released with no place to go, I would have re-offending in 30 minutes. I'd have been high because I would have had to do things like put a roof over my head, put clothes on my back, put food in my stomach. So in order to do the things that you do to her to do that, you get high. So I was I came door to door, bed to bed from incarceration to here. And they immediately removed the pressure of the urgent needs that you have, which are the shelter, food, physical condition, emotional condition. And they treat the whole woman. So when I came here, they loved me without judgment, which was something I wasn't even able to do for myself at that time, because the person that I had become, I didn't even recognize anymore who I was and the what I was became separated. And in my mind, the what I was, was the only thing left.

Heidi: It literally saved my life. So having been a graduate of the program, I went through this six month program, did their aftercare program and now am in a sort of rent controlled apartment, which was the next step to that. And I and I've been sober since the day. I only count sobriety since the day I was released. Some people count their incarceration time of sobriety time. But that just to me doesn't equate.

Bea: Did you get any type of support for the addiction that you had when you were incarcerated?

Heidi: Not at all. Not only was there no support for addiction, but because it was a regional facility and because they housed both men and women, and because two thirds of the population was men, they received all the services. We didn't even see the light of day for 17 months I was not outside.

Bea: Meaning the men got the services and the women didn't get any type of service.

Heidi: That's correct, because they don't want movement from both sexes at the same time. And since they have more men, their needs are addressed. Whereas like they have recreation, they go outside for recreation. Women do not because they have recreation. We are.

Heidi: Not one time in 17 months that I get to see a light of day unless I was going to court.

NARRATION 8

There is no lack of programs at Friend of Guest House and many volunteers interact with the women coming home from jail and prison. In addition to the workforce development program, which mimics a regular 9 to 5 work day, there are parenting classes, an improv class, a behavioral therapy course, psycho-social groups, a how to stay safe class, and even a knitting group with Project Knit, a national non-profit that teaches women how to knit. Kari says this particular class has been surprinsingly popular with the women.

Kari:Not only do you create something, a beauty that you could actually like, wear or give away, which is what a lot of the women do. But it's something you can tuck into your purse. And if you're in a stressful situation or even if you're just riding the bus back and forth to work or appointments or whatever, you can just take it out and start doing stuff. So that's been a really popular class. At first on, we started it. People were like, I'm not doing knitting. But now they love it.

Bea: What have you learned about the circumstances from the women that you have met in these past 14 years?

Kari: You know, there's a lot of of real owning it, you know, and not saying, oh, pity me either, you know. But then as you hear the stories, you see a lot of mental health issues. I mentioned trauma before, neglect, lack of family support, lack of community support. And I think for women, a real big issue is unhealthy relationships. Really, really significantly unhealthy relationships with partners who are not are not what they could be. But women, I think we find a lot of our value, through other people. So what we see coming from other people, so we really work on self-esteem with the women because without that, they're just going to end up back in the same cycle.

Kari: And what a healthy relationship is. That's one of the things we talk about, too, in the workforce. You know what is a healthy relationship? What does that look like? It's not, you know. It doesn't mean you can't meet your true partner at the bus stop. But most of us didn't, you know. And, you know, we just want to to have frank and open conversations about what it is to be healthy.

NARRATION 9: Helenia Bragg goes by the name Helenia Coffee Bragg. She is also a graduate of Friends of Guest House. Originally from Alexandria, Helena heard about this transitional home before being locked up in the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women, in the town of Troy, 55 miles northwest of Richmond. When she came out of prison, she had no family support system.

Helenia: I'm from Alexandria. So I knew that this was here. Back in the 70s. I remember hearing about it, openly. But I never considered going because at that time I wasn't considering change.

Helenia: So the last time I was in prison, I had a revelation. It dawned on me that If I don't use drugs, I don't commit crimes. If I don't commit crimes, I don't go to jail. So I decided that I wanted to do something different with my life. I've always went in jail, went in prison came out, returning to the same environment, doing the same things, with the same intentions.

Helenia: I was released in 2015. So, when I came home, I came home with like six vocational certifications. Three certifications from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, an associate degree from Piedmont, Virginia Community College. So I have been preparing myself for release. I had taken advantage of all these self-help programs and all the educational and vocational programs that was available to me. Soon it came to Friends of Guest House, with all those certifications I just broke of like HVAC, building maintenance, printing, cab, I couldn't find a job.

NARRATION 10: In May of this year, Helenia got her Bachelors degree in social work at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. She was able to attend the program thanks to a scholarship from The Sunshine Lady Foundation, founded by Doris Buffet, Warren Buffet’s sister. When Helenia graduated, Friends of Guest House threw a party for her. Helena’s family members, who live in the area came to her graduation ceremony. inspired by her own challenges to find a job after incarceration, Helena is now determined to create a non-profit.

Helenia: So, my overall goal is I'm working on a nonprofit Called SHE: Seeking Higher Employment. And that is because the women that coming out to Virginia prison system, they have a lot of vocational skills and vocational opportunities and also education for higher education. But when they come home, they take the first job that they get and there often is a deadbeat job like a fast food, car wash, housekeeper. But yet you went to school for optical. You went to school for cosmetology. You went to school for Braille, because I don't know about any other prisons system. But, Virginia prison system has excellent vocational opportunities. Braille, dog training, horticultural, cad, printing.

Helenia: So, I want to remove those barriers and put returning female citizens in a position of having a career opportunity, not just a job, because a job is often a setup. You cannot make livable wages from a job that pays 10 $ hour.

Bea: So, I know that one of the big issues in addition to employment is housing.

Helenia: It is. The good thing about Friends of GUEST House is they have a house called a second chance house. It’s On Gordon Street in Alexandria, Virginia. And I kid you not that house is beautiful. I've never lived in a house so beautiful in my life. Every time I put my key in a door, I feel like the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

Bea: The fresh prince of Bel Air!? (laughs)

Helenia: That's how beautiful the house is. So you pay you pay rent and you live there for 18 months. But as you see, I've been around for a while. So, it was time for me to move. I was fortunate enough to meet connections through Friends of Guest House, like the mayor of Alexandria that helped me get on the list of affordable housing and where I live today. Make no mistake, I'm grateful to have this place and it's based on my income.

Bea: Is there anything that you want to share with the listeners about your experience as a woman who has gone through the system and has come out, has gotten a lot of certificates, has just graduated with a degree in social work? What do you want people to know about women who have been incarcerated but are reentering society?

Helenia: Well, I want the public basically to know that women are one of the most precious creations of God. Women are mothers, sisters, they are wives, and often the woman is the one to keep the family strong. If we don't have more programs like this Friends of Guest House to support women in their reentry, then, if you don't have family support or a safe place to go, you are doomed for failure.

Helenia: And also would like to tell the public that, we do change and we do recovery. Disease of addiction is just that, a disease of addiction. It does not define who that person is. And now there is a cure for it and is called recovery. You can practice a program of recovery every day and stay healthy. But people need employment, housing, medical and family support.

Helenia: I would say to all the women that is reentering into society is do not be afraid of success. Find your self-worth, magnify your beauty and go out in the world and be a success. Do not fear being successful because so many times we self-destruct. Because we are free to step outside our comfort zone and success is not a thing that most female addicts has been in their life and You can change yourself. You can reinvent yourself any time in your life. I'm 62 years old and I'm just graduating from college. Education has been the foundation of my self-worth. The more I learn, the more I accomplish, the more I feel deserving. I feel worthy of success.

NARRATION 11

If you want to learn more about the reentry programs of Thrive D.C. and Friends of Guest House, check out their websites. You can donate money but you can also donate your time and skills to ensure that men and women who come out of prison or jail do not end up in the streets and are able to reintegrate successfully and become productive citizens. We also encourage you to find out more about affordable housing in your neighborhoods. Check out our sidecast to this episode on housing for a few additional factoids!

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