Criminal Justice 2023 (4 years)

Criminal Justice

Established in 1968, the organization conducts economic and social policy research and evaluation to understand and solve real-world challenges in a rapidly urbanizing environment. Its mission is to help expand opportunities for all people, reduce hardship among the most vulnerable, and strengthen the fiscal health of governments and effectiveness of public policies. The award renews supports for it to serve as the intermediary for the Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC) Just Home Project, the Foundation’s national demonstration project to develop specialized housing models that directly address the link between housing instability and criminal justice system involvement. Deploying both grant funding and program related investments, the project targets the housing needs of people with justice system involvement who are unhoused or unstably housed and thus at heightened risk for incarceration. Continued support enables Urban to expand the Just Home Project to a second cohort of selected SJC sites, building on the foundation established by the first cohort and capitalizing on the increased awareness and interest in the project generated by the first cohort’s housing investment action plans and implementation. The desired impacts of the project are to reduce incarceration, reduce housing instability, and reduce racial and ethnic disparities in outcomes by generating an array of housing solutions that can permanently end the use of jails and prisons as “housing of last resort.”