Story posted in PNJ.

If you own a vacant house that’s difficult to rent out or upkeep, a local organization may have a solution.

ReEntry Alliance of Pensacola, Inc., is looking for homes to rent to employed men and women who are working their way back to self sufficiency after a period of incarceration.

Rick Dye, executive director of REAP, said the organization is willing to rent the homes “as is” and use its own resources to bring the buildings up to code. Dye said the program creates affordable housing for ex-offenders, generates a revenue stream for the homeowners and ultimately increases the values of homes and neighborhoods.

“There are hundreds of houses here that people are breaking into or fires are breaking out,” Dye said. “There are people who don’t have money for taxes or insurance. We can give them relief. We are willing to take the risk of investing our own time and our own resources.”

REAP is a non-profit organization that helps ex-offenders secure the resources and services they need to become stable, tax paying citizens and avoid returning to jail or prison. The organization was recently appropriated $200,000 from the state budget to be a reentry portal for the area.

REAP has already invested in seven Brownsville homes that provide 30 beds for ex-offenders. As a stipulation of living in the homes, the individuals helped restore the houses to livable condition (with oversight from licensed professionals and code enforcement), maintain the property, pay $100 weekly rent and hold down a full-time job.

The idea is for the men to spend two months in REAP housing, then “graduate” by taking their job and savings and striking out into their own home or apartment.

The current reality is there is a dearth of affordable homes or apartments for the offenders to graduate to.

“Permanent housing is a real problem,” Dye said. “We’ve hit a bottleneck, and I can’t bring new guys in until we find somewhere for the current guys to go.”

Dye said typically one of the biggest hurdles for people coming out of incarceration is affordable housing. Many landlords won’t rent to individuals with felony convictions, and many ex-offenders — especially those who are young or coming off long sentences — have bad credit or no-credit.

John Johnson, executive director of the EscaRosa Coalition on the Homeless, said that for all of the difficulties in finding stable housing for ex-offenders, it was also one of the most important steps for them to be able to change their way of life.

“It’s the bedrock for them not to recommit,” he said. “The three things they need to have are stable housing, stable income and a person in their life or a support system they can count on.”

Dye said that 70 percent of people released from Escambia County Jail re-offend within two years, but that REAP’s recidivism rate was less than 10 percent. The organization is trying to expand its program to 100 beds, ideally in three-to-four bedrooms homes that several program participants could share.