Impact Justice: Changing the conversation, and reality, around homelessness
Across the nation more than 650,000 people – roughly the population of Boston or Las Vegas – are without reliable shelter. Many of these individuals are also impacted by the justice system as incarcerated individuals are ten times more likely than the general population to experience homelessness. Each year, more than 50,000 people enter shelters directly from correctional settings. As numerous cities and states across the country pursue penalties for survival activities, like sleeping in public, many of these same individuals are at even greater risk of being additionally criminalized.
Enter Impact Justice, a national nonprofit organization with three main areas of focus: reducing the number of people impacted by the criminal legal system, improving conditions for people who are currently incarcerated and creating conditions that allow people leaving prison to return to their communities in healthy and productive ways. One of the keys to this work is ensuring formerly incarcerated people have safe, stable and supportive housing to return to.
