Prison release, homelessness and health
What are the main barriers and gaps in the current housing pathway for individuals leaving custody; and how can we address them to reduce homelessness and reoffending?
a) Barriers and gaps:
Lack of pre-release planning and support:
Pre-release work is inconsistent and often ineffective including basic custody screening to flag housing needs.
Many individuals are released with a small sum of money and a list of services to contact.
Many people leaving prison face a "revolving door" of homelessness and reoffending due to lack of stable housing and support.
Lack of housing stability also impacts on peoples’ ability to secure and hold down employment.
a) Barriers and gaps:
Lack of pre-release planning and support:
Pre-release work is inconsistent and often ineffective including basic custody screening to flag housing needs.
Many individuals are released with a small sum of money and a list of services to contact.
Many people leaving prison face a "revolving door" of homelessness and reoffending due to lack of stable housing and support.
Lack of housing stability also impacts on peoples’ ability to secure and hold down employment.
Lack of suitable housing:
Lack of intermediary housing options leads to repeated engagement with the criminal justice system.
Insufficient social housing and heavy reliance on private landlords is common.
High rejection rates from landlords due to criminal records, substance use and mental health issues.
Emergency accommodation options (e.g., crash pads, hotels) are limited and can be located far from support services.
Complex needs and service fragmentation:
Lack of joined-up support for people with mental ill health, substance use and trauma.
Services operate in silos, with limited communication and coordination between housing, health and social care.
Many services claim to be trauma-informed but fail to deliver in practice.
Individuals are retraumatised by the repetitive and impersonal nature of service interactions.
b) Solutions and opportunities:
Pre-release planning:
Strengthen ‘Through the Gate’ work by increasing capacity for pre-release teams.
Ensure benefit claims (e.g., Universal Credit) and housing applications are completed before release.
Increase access to stable housing:
Expand social housing provision and establish dedicated housing pathways for people leaving prison.
Introduce more commissioned housing options tailored to people with complex needs such as mental ill health, substance use, co-occurring conditions.
Develop transitional housing models where individuals can move from short-term to long-term stable accommodation.
Improve referral and assessment processes:
Make the referral process (to link prisoners with housing on release) more effective.
Provide better local authority engagement in the assessment and housing allocation process, including the use of forecasting to estimate numbers of people being released into different council areas each month.
Wraparound support:
Co-locate housing with support services (health, substance use, employment) to provide one-stop shops for integrated care under one roof.
Offer flexible appointment times – provide ability for people to have morning or afternoon appointments rather than a specific time which then competes with other priority appointments they need to attend.
Provide peer-led mentoring and support programmes to help with tenancy sustainment.
How can we enhance collaborative efforts across different agencies and stakeholders to ensure stable housing for people released from prison, thereby improving health outcomes and reducing pressure on statutory services?
a) Challenges in collaboration:
Lack of co-ordination:
Different services (health, housing, social care) work independently rather than as part of an integrated system.
Poor information-sharing between prisons, probation and local authorities.
Inconsistent service offers across different localities (eg: departure lounge services vary)
Capacity and resource constraints:
Probation and prison services are understaffed and underfunded with many staff tired/under pressure to progress high volumes of caseload work.
Services focus on short-term fixes rather than sustainable solutions.
Systemic misalignment:
Health and social care are funded differently (central government vs. local government).
Charitable sector often fills the gap but faces unstable funding.
b) Successful strategies and opportunities:
Multi-agency case huddles:
Weekly multi-agency huddles (e.g., using Making Every Adult Matter – MEAM methodology) have improved outcomes in some areas enabling professionals from different services to collaborate to support individuals with complex needs.
Co-location of services:
Bringing housing, health, addiction, and mental health services together under one roof improves communication - reduces service gaps and enhances trust between agencies. Reduces risk of people having to constantly repeat their story, history and needs which can be re-traumatising for them.
Peer-led and trauma-informed models:
Establish peer support programmes where individuals with lived experience mentor others.
Provide trauma-informed training for frontline staff.
Holistic resettlement boards:
Regular joint resettlement boards involving prison, probation, housing and health services to plan in an integrated way for people’s release, enabling proactive problem-solving whilst reducing duplication of work.
What strategic actions can be taken to influence local and national policies to secure greater access to stable housing for individuals leaving custody?
a) Policy barriers:
Lack of national strategy for housing and criminal justice:
No national housing pathway for people leaving prison providing consistent expectations, processes and services across the country.
No national focus to link housing demand to supply
Policy focus seems to be on reducing prison numbers rather than addressing post-release support.
Short-term funding models:
Funding cycles are too short to allow for long-term housing solutions with competitive tendering reducing collaboration and leading to fragmented and inconsistent service provision.
Stigma and public perception:
Misconception that people leaving prison are automatically housed.
Public opposition to housing developments for ex-offenders.
b) Recommended strategic actions:
Create a national housing strategy for people leaving prison:
Develop a coordinated national policy that integrates housing with health/care and criminal justice, establishing a single funding stream to cover housing and wraparound support.
Ensure the statutory Duty To Refer (DTR) process is actioned in a timely way when people arrive in custody.
Require pre-release housing plans to be in place for everyone before they leave custody.
Confirm volume and housing needs of people to inform housing development and allocations programmes across the country.
Change commissioning models:
Create jointly commissioned services with an independent intermediary/advocate to:
Bring partners together (and keep them together)
Collate/share data and information about needs, aspiration of people leaving prison and how this fits with service provision
Get best value from current services and repurpose/redesign where needs not being met
Inform future service design, co-production and delivery.
Engage people with lived experience and service providers in co-designing commissioning plans to ensure funding agreements reflect the complexity of needs, build on good practice and are long-term.
Develop a centre of excellence:
Establish a national body to:
Collect and share best practice.
Fact check and provide clear information about the realities of life after prison to inform better rehabilitation and recovery services
Provide training and support to all partners within the criminal justice system focusing on the importance of housing to health and reoffending and the need for stronger cross-sector collaboration.
Public awareness and advocacy:
Conduct public education campaigns to challenge stigma around people leaving prison and housing.
Highlight the cost-saving benefits of reducing reoffending through stable housing.
Summary of key recommendations:
Strengthen 'Through the Gate' work by increasing capacity and linkages for pre-release teams.
Expand social housing provision and establish dedicated national, regional and local housing pathways for people leaving prison.
Introduce more commissioned housing options tailored to people with complex needs such as mental ill health, substance use and co-occurring conditions.
Co-locate housing with support services (health, substance use, employment) to provide ‘one-stop shops’ for integrated care under one roof.
Develop a coordinated national policy that integrates housing with health/care and criminal justice, establishing a single funding stream to cover housing and wraparound support, linking housing and support demand with supply.
Prepared by: