Desarae Green has been trying to find a stable home for herself and her twin 16-year-olds since she left prison in January 2023.
But the barriers she has faced keep piling up. She has pushed through obstacles, like the chronic medical condition that keeps her from working full-time. EDEN, a rental assistance organization, approved her rapid rehousing application, but she had to ask for two extensions on the deadline after being denied housing due to her criminal background.
Collateral sanctions
More than a thousand state and federal laws limit or prevent people convicted of crimes from accessing certain rights, benefits and opportunities. They’re called collateral sanctions or collateral consequences, and they can keep formerly incarcerated people from working certain jobs, getting approved for housing, volunteering or getting an education.
On Thursday, Green shared her story at a Cuyahoga County Office of Reentry event at the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry building. The community conversation was organized by the county’s Justice Housing Committee as a way for people to hear from others facing housing barriers and to learn what the committee is doing to help.
A year ago, the committee put together an eight-point plan, outlining a list of recommendations for housing justice in Cuyahoga County. Since then, one program has been implemented. The committee is still working on other parts of the plan, including doubling the number of existing housing programs, addressing housing affordability and passing Fair Chance Housing legislation so that property owners and managers can’t discriminate based on a person’s criminal background.
The goal is to reduce homelessness and help people find stability as they reenter their community after incarceration.
‘Everything is all over the place’
In May, Green was approved for a home and used EDEN’s rehousing rental assistance to pay rent. But four months later, her sewer started backing up. Her property manager took days to respond and send out maintenance workers, and the problem wasn’t resolved, Green said.
Her apartment now has black mold, which her doctors have told her will affect her medical condition. Green talked with case managers at EDEN, and the organization put her and her daughters up in a hotel in Beachwood for a week, she said.
That weeklong stay ends Thursday, and she has until the end of the month to move out of her apartment and find a new place to stay, she said. She’s also in the process of getting approved for a more permanent housing program through EDEN.
She has also been looking for a new home, though she doesn’t have enough money to pay a deposit yet. If she ends up without a home in the next week or two, her daughters will have to go live with their father while she figures out how to resolve her housing situation, she said.
In the last few days, she’s been back and forth packing up her home and spending the night at the hotel while also working and trying to complete HIPPA training so she can sell hair wigs in medical settings to patients who experience hair loss.
She’s stressed and has had to reach out to her mental health counselor to help her navigate her situation.
“I’m in a place where I just don’t know what direction to go in anymore,” Green said. “Everything is all over the place.”
‘I seek to be a productive citizen’
Kelby Evans has been out of prison since 2011. He has also been unhoused for the last year and a half, sleeping on friends’ and family members’ couches.
He is recovering from cocaine and fentanyl use and has been trying to get into a treatment program, but he been denied because he doesn’t have health insurance yet, he said. It’s in the process of being approved.
Though he wasn’t in the sobriety program, he stayed at a men’s sober house for two nights last week because he had nowhere else to go, he said.
“I seek sobriety,” he said. “I seek to be a productive citizen in today’s community.”
He also is constantly looking for a safe space, a place to unwind, process his situation and think about his next steps in order to stay sober and move forward with his life. Evans said one of the biggest challenges has been his felony record. He was in prison from 1999 to 2002 and did a second, yearlong prison stint in 2010.
“When you first get out, you don’t have a job, you don’t have the resources to go get an apartment immediately,” Evans said. “If you don’t have the support of a family member, or somebody letting you sleep on the couch, or somebody giving you a place to stay until you get those resources … you’re kind of just out there.”
He said it’s hard for him to prioritize finding a job or a home when he doesn’t know where or when he will be able to sleep that night. He also has to figure out where he can shower, or at least clean himself up to look presentable when he applies for a job, he said.
“I can’t think about employment if I’m thinking about where I’m going to lay my head at night,” Evans said. “I can’t think about getting a house if I can’t think about where I’m going to rest for the next two hours.”
‘It can be changed here’
His cousin, Mike Jones, who co-chairs the Reentry Advisory Committee, invited him to share his story at the community event. Toward the end of the event, Jones asked people in the room who had a felony record to stand.
“I want y’all to understand that you are looking at the people that are affected in this eight-point plan every day,” Jones said. “This ain’t for play. This is for real. It’s my life. It’s my cousin’s life. It’s Miss Green’s life. ”
James Walker, co-chair of the Reentry Advisory Committee, said there are around 30 Fair Chance Housing ordinances across the country. Those are proof that change can happen, Walker said.
“It is being changed,” he said. “And it is being changed by people who are living this experience, and it can be changed here.”
