The goal of all HOD activities is to help participants remain housed. HOD is a model used to disrupt the process Housing Authorities (HA) use to exclude Justice-Involved individuals (JII) from obtaining public housing on the appellate level, Our Hands On Defense model is 98% successful in reversing denial of public housing assistance, denial of housing voucher, and denial of reasonable accommodation, As well as avoiding eviction through court and landlord mediation. Our Far From Home Report produced 12 policy recommendations, where we were successful in negotiation policy change on the local admin level.

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A.   The goal of all Hands On Defense (HOD) activities is to help participants remain housed. HOD is a model used to disrupt the process Housing Authorities (HA) use to exclude Justice-Involved individuals (JIIs) from obtaining public housing on the appellate level. Our HOD model is 98% successful in reversing denials of public housing assistance, denials of housing vouchers and denials of reasonable accommodation– as well as challenging evictions through court and landlord mediation. Drawing on our Far From Home Report, which was developed in partnership with Harvard University to produce 12  policy recommendations to address discriminatory housing policies used by Housing Authorities (HAs), we were successful in negotiating major changes on the local admin level at the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) – a historic feat.

 

What is unique about the HOD Model is we created a unique way to defend people in court and Housing Authority appeal hearings. Most Attorney’s use law, policy, write motions and state facts to defend clients. J4H uses a participatory defense process. Using the community, directly affected mentors, statistics and policy; collectively this makes up the HOD Model. Judges, Court Clerks and Hearing Officers are impressed with our process. Saying it is “unique and affective”. Not the redundant defense attorneys use daily. Judges are eager to learn about the person as a whole. Not just looking at a piece of paper, ‘the CORI’ or an arrest report to determine if a person is deemed worthy). To date our achievements have been historic. A 98% success rate for reversing denial of housing based on CORI background (HOD) Network, a network of allied organizations trained in our HOD advocacy model by J4H Peer Leaders (PLs, formerly incarcerated leaders who train communities in advocacy & organizing). The HOD Network enables us to disseminate information & organize movements across the state & beyond. Training across the state, supports clients we would not otherwise be able to reach

 

A.  Every HOD Network Member training will be evaluated for satisfaction, acceptability, changes to knowledge, attitude & practice, increased readiness to support JII in housing, using pre/post-training surveys and through our Apricot database. The post-training survey will also collect feedback about gaps, desired changes and Peer Leaders; feedback will be shared with Peer Leaders in quarterly supervision meetings. Training efficacy will be evaluated using Member reports (individuals served, success rates etc) Reported through our Membership website built to collect Network Member data.

 

HOD Network Members will submit reports every 6 months. # of JIP served, outcomes, challenges, and complete a survey (including qualitative feedback) re: quality of technical support they receive from J4H, experiences implementing HOD programming, successes. We will aggregate data, releasing an annual report in year 2 quarter 1, demonstrating scope of harm, HOD’s successes & growth areas.

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J4H is actively honing in on the key performance indicators that we use to determine success within our programming, and, as our programs expand and develop, we plan to adjust our metrics accordingly. Currently, the outcomes of interest within the HOD program include whether a client has been housed, the type of housing accessed by a housed client, and whether a housing denial / eviction / termination was upheld or successfully repealed in the clients’ favor.