MISSOULA – A new housing pilot program aims to help those who have been recently released from jail.
Missoula County and the District XI Human Resource Council are working together on a Supportive Housing Pilot Program that will help those who have recently been released from incarceration to find homes and other services.
A $153,000 grant will allow the program to hire people to fill two positions. The first of those two positions is a re-entry case manager that will help folks involved in the program find housing and find the necessary resources for rent assistance. The second position is a housing stability coordinator.
The housing stability coordinator will help to build positive relationships between landlords, managers, and returning residents while also attempting to develop a landlord mitigation fund.
"By getting them into housing it’s going to help provide stability it’s going to help with other services and ultimately reduce recidivism. Because when people aren’t…if they don’t have a house, if they don’t have that stability — it makes it very tempting for them to go back to the life that maybe they had pre-incarceration," said Erin Kautz with the Missoula County Department of Community and Planning Services. "So we’re trying to show them that there’s another life other than that there’s options available."
County officials say a similar program in Pennsylvania resulted in the recidivism rate dropping from 53% to 22%.
