CHPC’s Executive Director, Jerilyn Perine, participated today in the panel discussion following the presentation of Three-Quarter Houses: The View from the Inside at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. This report by Robert Riggs and Tasha Burnett analyzes the role of three-quarter houses in the recovery and reintegration process for people facing substance abuse or who have been recently released from prison. The report also sheds light on the poor conditions in many three-quarter houses and the requirements that operators commonly place on residents to participate in recovery programs.
The panel discussion, which was moderated by Ann Jacobs from the Prisoner Reentry Institute, also featured Joanne Page from The Fortune Society and Tanya Kessler from MFY Legal Services. The panelists discussed the challenges to enforcing tenant protections in three-quarter houses and the need to ensure that residents can access the treatment programs and social services they need rather than those for which operators receive funding. Jerilyn Perine put three-quarter houses in the context of the many informal housing arrangements that have emerged in response to an outdated housing stock that no longer meets the needs of increasing numbers of single-person households.
Through its Making Room initiative, CHPC has been focused on exploring regulatory changes that would enable the development and legalization of smaller units to provide safe housing to the rising numbers of single-person households, such as those currently finding their only options in underground three-quarter houses.