One of the biggest struggles facing people who are assimilating back into the community after incarceration is housing. Thanks to a recent Opioid Settlement grant from the City of Hartford, Community Partners in Action (CPA) is now operating a Hartford-based nine-bedroom transitional home for men.
The house is named after Gordon S. Bates, CPA’s Executive Director from 1980 – 1997, who also wrote The Connecticut Prison Association and the Search for Reformatory Justice, published by Wesleyan University Press in 2017. Gordon began working with CPA as a volunteer in the 1960’s, and then went on to lead our Volunteer Sponsorship Program.
Gordon’s Place provides temporary housing to men experiencing homelessness who are or have been justice-involved, with a history of addiction or mental illness. The men living at Gordon’s Place must have resided in Hartford prior to their becoming justice-involved or placed in a Hartford-based halfway or transitional house.
The home is owned by a local business owner who also owns other sober houses throughout the area. Each resident is required to participate in programming, maintain employment, abide by home rules, pay monthly rent, and maintain their sobriety.
A part-time Housing Specialist employed by Community Partners in Action will serve as the point of contact for the owner and the CPA programs that provide wrap-around support services to the men. The Housing Specialist will also work with each resident to develop a long-term housing plan so they can eventually live independently.