State seeks $6.75 million to help former inmates with opioid use disorder pay for housing

The legislation is intended to allow towns to set in place rent stabilization measures, the bill's sponsor said. (Getty Images)

The state’s dire shortage of affordable housing has been a huge challenge for just about everyone. That can be especially difficult for someone with both criminal charges and substance or opioid use disorder.

The state’s judicial branch hopes to help more people in the latter category find and afford housing. It has asked the Executive Council for approval to use $6.75 million to expand its existing housing assistance program to include people with a history of opioid use disorder, including those with a co-occurring mental health diagnosis, who are leaving county jail on probation. It is currently open to people leaving state prison or participating in alternative treatment courts with a broader substance use disorder.

Katie Parent, the judicial branch’s community housing program coordinator, said housing is critical to stability for anyone.

“And then when you add things like mental health and substance use disorder and all of those additional barriers, it just makes it that much more difficult,” she said. “So housing really is one of those key building blocks that’s required for someone to reach a level of stability.”

The court system began its housing assistance program four years ago for people with substance use disorder as they left prison or were resolving criminal charges in alternative treatment courts, such as drug court. In that time, it has helped 842 people pay for 63,000 nights of housing, Parent said.

The council is set to take up two funding requests Wednesday related to the program.

One is a $1.9 million request that would continue the existing program for two years using money from the state’s sale of alcohol. Of that, about $430,000 would be for salary and benefits, according to the judicial branch’s request.

The $6.75 million request , which would be funded by state’s legal settlements with drug makers, would expand the program to people with a history of opioid use disorder who are leaving one of the state’s 10 jails on probation; participating in alternative treatment courts; or have a co-occurring mental health diagnosis.

The funding would cover three years, with about $700,000 put toward salary and benefits, according to the request.

Parent said the new program, like the existing one, would allow the state to help participants cover rent at sober homes and individual apartments for up to several months, depending on their needs.

Part of Parent’s role is to forge relationships with landlords and sober homes willing to contract with the state and provide participants housing. Parent said the list of participating landlords has grown as those who’ve been doing it for a while share their experiences.

Alex Casale, the statewide treatment court coordinator, said the housing program has had bipartisan support because it helps people succeed at recovery and, thereby, avoid incarceration, which is costly for the state.

“If you’re concerned about the fiscal part of it, it saves money,” Casale said. “If you don’t really care about the fiscal part of it, and you just want to do it for the social aspect, well it’s doing that, too. It really touches on so many different levels.”

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