A group of social service agency leaders trying to help local prison inmates re-enter society successfully is struggling to find landlords willing to rent to the group’s constituents.

The Blair County Re-entry Coalition is continuing to invite landlords to connect with the coalition, so it can convince them that the services the coalition will provide for newly released inmates will help them navigate through the outside world, while helping to ensure things go smoothly for the landlords, said members at a meeting Thursday.

The coalition wants landlords to realize that coalition agencies will be “wrapping the re-entrants in services to create a cushion” against the myriad obstacles encountered in daily life, said Trish Johnson, director of the Blair County Department of Social Services, a coalition member.

There will be screening, and there will be a “safety net” for both re-entrants and landlords, according to Ken Dean, temporary coalition chair and retired Blair County mental health program specialist.

The safety net will be robust enough that landlords may have better odds getting a good tenant through the program than they would with any other random tenant lacking such support, said Craig Limbert, coalition member and community-based case management supervisor for Blair Drug and Alcohol.

“(The agencies) will be standing behind and together with the re-entrants, so we can catch them when they stumble,” Limbert said.

Not only will the agencies reach out to the re-entrants to help redirect them when necessary, but they’ll be available when the landlords reach out when problems need corrected, the officials said.

The help for re-entrants includes employment coaching, assistance with daily life skills like reading a lease, putting the trash out and paying bills; along with family-related services, peer support and drug and alcohol counseling.

Help for landlords might include how to handle problems with housekeeping.

The re-entrants need assistance because they’re laboring under a “very high stigma,” which includes landlord concerns about the crimes they committed, along with previous evictions.

The tight renter’s market compounds the difficulty, officials said.

If a newly released inmate were to receive no help, and begin randomly calling phone numbers to inquire about housing rental opportunities, the chances of success would slim, Limbert said.

The coalition’s hope is to help get the re-entrants onto “the same playing field as anybody else,” he said.

“Don’t punish them twice for the same offense,” he said. They’ve paid their debt to society, he added.

The help the re-entrants will be getting tends to increase their motivation to succeed, one official said.

The program helps society at large by reducing recidivism, Limbert said.

Many Blair County landlords are unaware of the effort so far, Johnson said.

The coalition Housing Subcommittee is hoping that in discussions of the issue, landlords will contribute suggestions to fortify the effort.

“Help us figure out how this is going to work,” Johnson said.

When people who are incarcerated get out and become productive members of society, good things happen and bad things are avoided for society as a whole, according to Dean.

Good things include work done by the client, economic stimulus provided by spending of the money they earn and taxes paid, according to Dean.

Re-entrant success also helps diminish the prison population, which decreases prison costs, Dean said.

Landlords interested in the program can call the county Department of Social Services at 814-693-3023 and say they would like to connect with the Re-entry Coalition.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.