Housing help after release ranges from emergency shelter and transitional residences to long-term supportive housing with on-site services. Many programs here are built for people on parole or probation, and supportive housing usually requires an HRA 2010e application, which a case manager or program staff member can submit for you.
Tip: if you're on parole, get any new address approved by your parole officer before you move, and keep a copy of your release paperwork, since many housing programs ask for proof of recent incarceration.
Queens has fewer local listings than Manhattan or Brooklyn, so the citywide services below, many of which work by phone, fill much of the gap.
4 services based in Queens, plus 56 citywide
Full-service reentry hub: housing (emergency to permanent), benefits enrollment, case management, education, employment, outpatient substance use and mental health treatment, family services, HIV/AIDS services and ATI programs. No legal services.
Services for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and their families: housing, employment training, case management, mentoring, after-school clubhouse, food pantry, thrift shops.
Supports formerly incarcerated women, girls, and gender-fluid individuals with trauma-informed care, safe housing, employment pathways, and entrepreneurship support. Programs include 'She Writes Her Trauma,' a writing-based healing workshop, and 'When She Comes Home,' which offers care packages and transitional support to women and girls returning from incarceration.
Food pantries, housing, mental health and senior services; serves all faiths.
These serve people from every borough, often by phone, online or at more than one office.
Online tools and peer support for people facing housing discrimination because they use rental vouchers (CityFHEPS, Section 8, FHEPS, HASA); helps document and report discrimination and connects to agencies.
Information for tenants, landlords and advocates: housing court procedures, landlord-tenant rules, code violations, referrals to free legal help and back-rent assistance.
Free civil legal services in housing, benefits and immigration, plus representation for conviction-history employment discrimination.
Provides free legal assistance to low-income New Yorkers on housing, civil rights, disability rights, aging rights, bankruptcy, tax, consumer, employment, government benefits, and kinship care matters, including advice, counsel, and representation to help people with past criminal records re-enter the workforce.
Free legal information, assistance and referrals from trained non-lawyer volunteers supervised by an attorney: benefits, employment, housing, family, immigration, health, divorce, domestic violence.
Connects soon-to-be-released and formerly incarcerated individuals to medical, mental health, and case management services, including substance use programs, plus vocational training, help obtaining entitlements, and referrals to long-term housing placement.
Confidential information on HIV/AIDS testing and service referrals; HASA supports benefits and housing for eligible people with HIV.
Clubhouse-model mental health rehabilitation: job development and coaching, supported education, supportive housing, virtual programs and social events.
Information and applications for NYC affordable housing lotteries, in multiple languages.
Eviction prevention, emergency rental assistance, benefits help, financial counseling and relocation help.
Reunites select people leaving prison or jail with family living in qualified NYCHA apartments and provides reentry services and intensive case management.
Free online tools for tenants: repair complaint letters sent by certified mail, building/landlord lookup (Who Owns What), Good Cause eviction screener and eviction help.
