Residential and Transitional Housing
Benevolence Farm maintains a housing facility that provides women leaving prisons with a place to live, work, and reestablish themselves in North Carolina. Most residents live on the farm for six months to two years, post-release from a North Carolina prison. For women who cannot be accommodated on the farm property due to capacity limitations, staff work to find transitional housing in the community. You can learn more about our rapid rehousing efforts here.
Eligibility
To be eligible for admission to the residential program at Benevolence Farm:
- Must be a self-identifying woman transitioning to society from prison
- Must be willing and motivated to make healthy life changes and develop leadership skills
- Must be willing and able to contribute to a minimum of 8 hours per week of farm work
- Must be willing to contribute to the farm, property and household responsibilities
- Must understand/agree that children, family, loved ones may not stay the night or live with resident
To download an application, click here. For more information about the application process or assistance, please contact hello@benevolencefarm.org.
If you would like to directly support the material needs of the women on the farm, please consider donation of items on our Amazon Wishlist.
Tiny Home Community
The residents of Benevolence Farm are expressing a need for a second phase of housing on the Farm, one that is more independent. We currently only have beds available in a communal living area. To address our capacity and the desire for the next step of housing, we are working with Haven Developers to imagine a Tiny Home Community, as designed by our current residents.
Our goal is to build a community of six tiny homes on the back of our 13-acre farm. Each home will cost about $50,000 to build, plus the preparation and clearance of land for the homes and a new driveway.
While we work behind the scenes, can you help us fund the initial construction and first two homes? You can become a sustaining donor here.
Community Resources
Benevolence Farm regularly consults with women being released from prison, in addition to staff in prisons and jails throughout North Carolina. We manage and update a community resource sheet to help formerly incarcerated women with the community reintegration process. We value being a community partner and referral source to organizations around the state that serve and support formerly incarcerated women.
For example, we currently work with the Burlington Housing Authority to support a transition to housing policies that better accommodate people with criminal records.