HOUSING DILEMMAS CIC

We are working with the National Probation Service and Chelmsford City Council to break the cycle of offending in Chelmsford.

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In a publication by Chelmsford City Life, Julie Weight (2021) writes: “Prisoners who are released without homes to go to after serving their time can end up sleeping in public places, spiralling quickly into difficulties and – in some cases – falling back into offending. 79% of ex-prisoners who become homeless reoffend within a year of getting out of prison. This drops to 47% when they have somewhere stable to live. Twenty per cent of all the ex-offenders in Essex supervised by the National Probation Service are in Chelmsford, which is home to a prison and young offender institution for men aged 18 and over. In 2020, approximately 50 offenders were referred to Chelmsford City Council by the prison as being potentially homeless on their release.”

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Housing Dilemmas is excited to be piloting this project with the City Council and National Probation Services.  The need to make housing and support available to ex-offenders when released from prison to give them a fresh start cannot be overemphasised enough, if we want to see to it that their risks of re-offending is minimised.