At the end of January, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper signed an Executive Order directing government coordination to improve reentry for formerly incarcerated people in the most significant effort targeted at strengthening reentry in state history.
There are two components of this Executive Order that we are particularly excited about at Benevolence Farm.
- Reentry Housing: One of the priorities outlined in the Order is the attempt to “reduce the number of incarcerated individuals who are homeless upon release by 50%.” As a reentry housing organization, we look forward to reviewing the plans to achieve this landmark goal. We hope these plans will prioritize substantial investments in current reentry housing programs, which frequently face challenges of being underfunded and operating beyond capacity.
- Coordinated Benefits: The other goal that piqued our interest is the effort to pre-screen and inform incarcerated people of their eligibility for benefits, such as SNAP, TANF, Medicaid, and more upon release. While information is important, we see firsthand how harmful the SNAP (i.e. food stamps) / TANF ban is to people with certain level drug felony convictions. It is our hope that the state government goes above and beyond this goal by repealing the SNAP/TANF ban and ensuring eligible people of all criminal background histories are eligible for critical financial support when they return home. To learn more about this issue, check out our blog post here.
This month, we are loving the increased focus on reentry needs across the state of North Carolina.
What are you loving this month?