Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

In California, court-ordered realignment has resulted in hundreds of incarcerated individuals being released early, with local communities struggling to manage the influx of recently released individuals. Formerly incarcerated individuals can impose significant social costs, with recidivism and poor employment outcomes being major concerns. Research has shown that housing can be an important stabilizing mechanism in this regard as unstable housing situations are associated with a greater likelihood of recidivism and parole non-compliance (Geller & Curtis, 2011; Metreux & Culhane, 2004; Nelson, Deess, & Allen, 1999).

This case study examines the collaboration between the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) and its partner nonprofits in their implementation of a housing reentry pilot program that allows recently released formerly incarcerated individuals to reunite with family members who receive Housing Choice vouchers. Embracing federal guidance asking housing authorities to balance community safety and the reunification of families (Donovan & Galante, 2011) and recognizing the reality that the formerly incarcerated often have difficulty securing housing, HACLA's Board of Commissioners approved the pilot program in May of 2013. Given the challenges faced by many of the recently released, the program was perceived to fill a very urgent need for a particularly at-risk population. However, despite ongoing efforts from HACLA and the three nonprofits, only a few of the 200 slots have been used to reunify families in the three years since the program began. Given the low participation rate, this paper examines the program’s implementation via a collaborative governance perspective in order to better understand why the collaboration was unsuccessful. Furthermore, the participation of three nonprofit organizations makes it possible to compare the performance of each and thus better determine which structural factors and organizational characteristics may have impacted the collaboration.

Donovan, S. & Galante, C. (2011, June 17). Letter from Secretary Donovan to PHAs. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Retrieved from http://www.usich.gov/resources/uploads/asset_library/Rentry_letter_from_Donovan_to_PHAs_6-17-11.pdf

Geller, A. & Curtis, M. (2011). A sort of homecoming: Incarceration and the housing security of urban men. Social Science Research 40, 1196–1213.

Metraux, S., & Culhane, D.P. (2004). Homeless shelter use and reincarceration following prison release: assessing the risk. Criminology and Public Policy 3(2), 201–222.

Nelson, M., Deess, P., & Allen, C. (1999). The first month out: Post-incarceration experiences in New York City. New York: The