Types of Housing in Nebraska
Securing housing after incarceration poses significant barriers. In addition to a shortage of affordable places to live, people returning to the community typically have few options beyond low-income communities lacking in resources.
Therefore, the risk of instability, becoming unhoused, and returning to prison are more likely. It’s hard to imagine a life of success without a place to call home. Studies show the risk of homelessness is greater for people who have been incarcerated more than once. Additionally, they increase once people have been released from prison. It’s a revolving door.
The Prison Policy Initiative found that even people who have spent years in the community after prison are four times more likely to become homeless than the general public.
What is Stabilizing Housing?
“Stabilizing housing” is a new approach to reentry housing designed to help individuals and families secure and maintain safe, affordable, and consistent housing after prison. It combines structure with personalized support, creating a strong foundation for successful reentry and independent living. The goal is not only to help residents reconnect with their community, but also to establish lasting roots so they can thrive on their own over time.
What is Transitional Housing?
“Transitional housing” after incarceration is meant to help people move from one stage of life to another. However, it is also used for people experiencing homelessness, the disease of addiction, aging out of foster care, surviving domestic violence, veterans, and more.
In the correctional system, transitional living, or transitional housing, refers to a living quarters as an “alternative to imprisonment”. Oftentimes, based on an individual’s prison sentence, transitional housing is a living arrangement required by the parole board as a method to gradually move out of a locked facility and towards independent, community living.
Lengths of stay in a transitional home ranges from a few months to two years.
Cost of rent varies - many based on a sliding scale.
What is a Halfway House?
The term “halfway house” is often used interchangeably, though there are differences. Primarily used for people recently released from prison or jail, halfway houses typically have stricter rules, curfews, required programming, and are monitored as a condition of parole or probation.
Length of stay typically ranges from three-12 months depending on the individual’s progress and policies of the facility.
Cost of rent varies based on the individuals ability to pay, their income, and the policies set in place by the facility.
What is a Shelter?
A “shelter” offers a temporary living space to provide safety and protection from exposure to the weather or other circumstances removing them from a living arrangement. Generally speaking, there are three basic types of shelters: no-barrier, low-barrier, and high-barrier.
No-barrier shelters do not have requirements for their guests and are for those in need of an immediate place to stay.
Low-barrier shelters offer easy access to services, but can require proof of low income, identification, sobriety, drug testing, and behavioral requirements.
High-barrier shelters typically require programming participation, sobriety, employment, and curfews. These types of shelters are for more long-term stays.
