Housing shortage an added challenge for people transitioning out of prison, agency says

An organization that advocates for people impacted by the criminal justice system says northern Ontario needs housing, treatment, and harm reduction programs that are tailored to the needs of the north. 

Representatives of the John Howard Society of Ontario recently toured the north after its new report, Locked Up Locked Out – examining the impact of criminal justice system involvement on housing access – identified a number of themes that were particularly prevalent in the region.

They met with both service providers and people with lived experience of the system, said Safiyah Husein, the director of policy for the society. 

"We talked a lot about the drug toxicity crisis and how …  it's hitting northern communities harder than some of the rest of Canada," Husein said.

"And some of the challenges with accessing services – things like transportation and... people coming to hub cities from the far remote areas."

Locked Up Locked Out documents the relationship between criminal justice system involvement and homelessness, concluding that each can be a cause of the other.

People who are released on bail but don't have housing can end up back in jail because they struggle to follow their release conditions, Husein said.

People can also find themselves homeless after they've been released from prison, she said.

"We hear from folks in northern Ontario … some people who are experiencing chronic homelessness commit small crimes when the weather starts to get cold just so they have some place to go," Husein said.

"The list for any sort of shelter is extremely long. … So people are sort of pushed to have some form of survival … And then when people come out, they have a criminal record. In some cases ... it's much harder to find housing with a criminal record." 

The executive director of Thunder Bay's largest low-barrier shelter for people experiencing homelessness said he hears from clients all the time about the struggles they face looking for housing after leaving incarceration.

"They say, you know, they face barriers and discrimination when they try and rent a house," Brendan Carlin said. 

"And some of these people are not, you know, dangerous to society or anything like that. … They've done their time, and they're looking for a second chance, so it's really hard."

Improving housing options for people involved in the criminal justice system actually saves taxpayers money, Husein said.