County Would Build Criminal Justice Reentry Housing
MacArthur Foundation grant gives county funding to pursue reentry housing project.
Milwaukee County will likely develop new housing for people re-entering society after incarceration.
The county is a participant in the MacArthur Foundation’s long-running Safety and Justice Initiative, which provides funding for new approaches to criminal justice to reduce jail populations across the U.S. The county’s courts and human services system have received millions from the foundation. Some of the programs developed include expanded mental health responses in the criminal justice system and efforts to keep low-level offenders out of the Milwaukee County Jail.
The foundation is repurposing a strategy that has been successful in addressing homelessness: housing first. The county’s housing division has built its homelessness response around a housing first strategy, that attempts to use stable housing as a foundation to address the root causes of homelessness.
“It’s something we talked to the county board about a lot that you know, without the foundation of stable housing, a lot of other things in individuals lives are not going to work out, similar to what we do with our housing first initiative for homelessness,” Mathy said.
“We’ll be working with a lot of justice-involved individuals and really looking for their voice to determine best practice models and what they would like to see in housing programs,” Mathy said.
Once the planning is finished, if the county decides to move forward, the foundation will make up to $5 million available for the project in the form of a 10-year loan at 1% interest, Mathy said. The county will need to find a private developer or a nonprofit agency to take on the loan and develop the project for the county.
“So we’re very excited about this work,” Mathy said, “and also really excited to engage individuals who are justice involved, with lived experience to formulate our plan.”
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Related Legislation: Reentry grant report
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