Stable housing is the foundation for successful reentry from prison and jail. Having a place to live is essential for finding employment, accessing health care and treatment programs, and building support networks.

The odds against formerly incarcerated people successfully finding housing are compounded by factors including poverty, unemployment, frayed family ties, untreated mental health and substance use disorders, and regulations limiting access to public housing for the formerly incarcerated.

But there is a short supply of transitional reentry housing that provides a bridge from prison to permanent supportive or affordable housing. Meanwhile, the demand for housing is significantly greater than the vacant and available inventory. In New York City, the vacancy rate has plummeted to 1.4%, a level not seen in decades.

For decades, Osborne has drawn on a large network of housing providers in an effort to assist our participants in finding a home. In the mid-90s, when policy choices radically shrank the number of work-release programs and the prisons that ran them were slated for closure, Osborne stepped in with the idea to transform a former prison into a community reentry center.

That idea became Fulton Community Reentry Center, which opened in 2024 as a transitional home for men returning from long-term incarceration. To expand the options available, we designed a Kinship Reentry Housing Program to provide financial resources to families seeking to welcome formerly incarcerated loved ones into their homes. Marcus Garvey, our supportive housing program in Brownsville, Brooklyn, offers coordinated, multi-layered resources to address the needs of the older adults living there.

With an emphasis on those who are older and have been away from their community the longest, Osborne aims to expand its range of housing solutions in New York City, Newburgh, Buffalo, and beyond.