Simplified: A new county program centered on helping folks who've been impacted by the justice system has officially housed more than a dozen people in the first six months. Here's what you need to know about Just Home.
Why it matters
- Minnehaha County has been working on the Just Home program for a few years now, since receiving a MacArthur Foundation Grant back in 2022. That grant has helped create new apartments in partnership with both the Glory House and the St. Francis House.
- Last fall, the county started accepting referrals for Just Home, and they've already received more than 100 referrals, 19 of whom have been connected with housing so far, according to Just Home Intake Coordinator Jeanne Rivera.
- That includes folks like 29-year-old Tyler Ford, who now has his own apartment after years of experiencing homelessness, addiction and incarceration. Ford, now nearly four years sober, moved into a Lloyd Companies apartment in October with the help of Just Home.
- Ford described his experience with Just Home as "the most important thing that's probably ever happened to me."
"I feel like a normal person now," Ford said. "Especially in a state like South Dakota where they're really hard on crime, and all the landlords here are not felon-friendly, it's pretty incredible that some people got together and decided that this needed to happen."
Tell me more about Just Home
The program specifically targets two groups of people in its mission to help house people who've previously been incarcerated.
- One group is folks like Ford, who are working with a probation or parole officer post-incarceration and already receiving some case management services to help them with reentry.
- The second group is a tad more challenging, said Kari Benz, county human services director. That includes people who often have a combination of mental health or addiction issues and are in need of more supervision and case management.
In order to find housing through Just Home, a person must be referred by either a case manager, parole officer, or a local nonprofit like the St. Francis House, Southeastern Behavioral Health or South Dakota Urban Indian Health.
"Our role as government is really to do a good job of supporting the agencies in our community that do an outstanding job of caring for our community members," Benz said.
Once in the program, Just Home participants also must continue working with case managers and other wraparound services for whatever their unique needs might be.
What happens next?
Now that the county has evidence this type of program can work, the next steps are finding continued funding and grants to keep Just Home going.
"I think it’s too easy for people to judge individuals who've been justice-impacted and for whatever reason their life took them down an incredible challenge," Benz said. "Change is possible but people have to be given the opportunity to improve themselves."
