The Year in Review

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Jubilee Housing didn’t just survive 2020, we thrived. We couldn’t have done it without the gifts of our partners and friends. Last year, your support allowed Jubilee Housing to continue providing deeply affordable homes, at a time when having a home was so important.

Because we could not meet in person safely, we had to think creatively about how to spread holiday cheer to our community. Through your donations, we raised $40,000 and were able to provide direct monetary support to 284 Jubilee households during the holiday season!

And not just during the holidays, all throughout last year you showed up in unbelievable ways. Here are a few ways your investments in justice housing eased the challenges of 2020 for the Jubilee community:

  • 552 Jubilee residents maintained safe, stable, affordable housing
  • 454 community members received extra support when they needed help
  • 188 residents received 1,017 meals during the pandemic
  • 60 students used extra academic support during the pandemic
  • 46 people leaving prison moved into safe, supportive transitional homes
  • 21 new residents have joined a loving, thriving community
  • 14 students received Jubilee to College scholarships
  • Over $100,000 in direct financial support was provided to residents through meals, rent support, and gift cards

A Steward of the Reentry Community

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The Jubilee Reentry Housing Initiative house for men sits quietly on a bustling Adams Morgan thoroughfare. Most people do not even know it is there, but Louis Sawyer Jr., makes his way there every night to instill hope in a population that society has written off.

Before joining Jubilee, Mr. Sawyer had and still does have deep roots in the advocacy community for returning citizens. Actually, he found Jubilee and asked us about our Reentry program before the program began. This is just one example of Mr. Sawyer purpose and passion.  

Jubilee Housing CEO Jim Knight likes to joke that Mr. Sawyer recruited us to hire him. He helped Jubilee with some of the early community bridge-building for Reentry programming and later became a cornerstone of the program and staff members.  Mr. Sawyer joined the Jubilee staff six years ago and helped open the men’s reentry house in January 2014. Reentry is and always will be Mr. Sawyer’s ministry.

“He is a great gift to our organization and mission,” said Knight. “He brings an authenticity and passion that helps make our program work.”

At the men’s house, Mr. Sawyer is the Overnight Resident Monitor. He works alongside with the reentry team members to make sure our residents are in a clean and safe environment, so they can focus on rebuilding their lives. As someone with lived experience in the justice system, Mr. Sawyer prefers to offer the men he works with “a hand up, not a handout,” as he says, empowering them by sharing his own story of hope for the future.

Mr. Sawyer is a native Washingtonian, born and raised in the District. He feels a deep connection to the city and wants to see more justice housing throughout D.C. This is what keeps Mr. Sawyer motivated: his advancing the mission of Jubilee Housing in obtaining more affordable housing for very low-income residents.

When we asked Mr. Sawyer what he loves about D.C., he quickly answered, the people. “We all know D.C. is experiencing gentrification, but the opportunities to live in our city must be accessible to all of our residents,” he said. 

Mr. Sawyer believes in the words of the author of “Just Mercy” – Bryan Stevenson – “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.”

We are blessed to have Mr. Sawyer as part of the Jubilee Housing Reentry Initiative staff and look forward to continuing the important work of bringing about housing for our justice involved population.

Since this article was written, Mr. Sawyer was promoted to Community Outreach Coordinator.

Jubilee Housing Acquires King Emmanuel Baptist Church

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Jubilee Housing’s latest acquisition is unique in many ways.

King Emmanuel Baptist Church sits at 1721 Kalorama Road NW and has been part of the Adams Morgan community since 1907. The church has an active congregation, which includes Jubilee Housing residents and staff members. So, when Jubilee heard that the congregation was looking to sell the church, the Property Development team jumped at the chance to preserve a historic landmark in one of the organization’s core neighborhoods.

Jubilee offered the congregation a chance to stay and worship at King Emmanuel after renovations, but church members decided to relocate the congregation to Maryland.

While Jubilee plans to renovate the church, the 11,000-square-foot space is currently in good condition and can be used as is, so Jubilee can start to have a presence there right away. This also creates an opportunity for other nonprofits that do similar work to meet at the church.

King Emmanuel is Jubilee’s second purchase on the same block and, like the other building, will be developed as justice housing for residents with low incomes and men and women returning home from incarceration. The new property will allow for an expansion of Jubilee’s current reentry program, which has two residences, one for women and one for men. The current reentry program has been in operation for eight years.

We hope to start having a regular presence at King Emmanuel Baptist Church to educate, raise awareness, and break down the stereotypes that promote fear. We’ll offer new ways to understand the experiences of incarcerated individuals and new ways to work with our neighbors,” Jim Knight, Jubilee Housing President and CEO says about the purchase of the church.

The $3.6 million KEB acquisition marks the closing purchase for the Justice Housing Partners Fund, which raised a total of $5.3 million.

Once renovations are complete, Jubilee plans to use the church as a worship space for community congregations and transitional housing for returning citizens. The building will be modernized and its footprint will be slightly expanded. However, the current look and feel of the structure will remain the same.

Community Meeting

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Jubilee Housing hosted a June community meeting for its Adams Morgan neighbors and elected representatives to share the organization’s vision for expanding justice housing in the neighborhood, including broadening Jubilee’s Reentry Housing Initiative.

Jim Knight, Jubilee Housing president and CEO, opened the meeting by highlighting the organization’s long history in Adams Morgan and its commitment to the well-being of every resident. Knight explained that in the face of D.C.’s unprecedented prosperity and gentrification, Jubilee’s work has shifted to focus on creating justice housing — deeply affordable homes, in resource-rich neighborhoods like Adams Morgan, with access to healthcare, employment, transportation, high quality schools, and supportive services.

Knight shared the organization’s vision for expanding justice housing by 30 percent over the next five years and explained that this vision includes everyone — families, children, individuals of all incomes, and those returning from incarceration. He also described the crisis our city faces regarding mass incarceration. Not only does the United States have the highest incarceration rate in the world, but also if D.C. was a state, it would have the highest incarceration rate per capita in the country.

Kevin Sharps, Jubilee’s vice president of Programs, spoke of how important it is for individuals coming home from incarceration to have the support they need to be successful. Without the proper supports, the chances of recidivism are much greater. Cherie Lindsay, director of Jubilee Housing’s Reentry Housing Initiative, reviewed how the reentry program has grown over the years. She also explained Jubilee’s new expanded programs.

The Reentry Housing Initiative, now in its seventh full year, serves up to 20 returning citizens at a time, with capacity to serve up to 45 people each year, and is divided between two properties – a men’s and women’s house. The program is designed to last up to one year and provides structure, support, and accountability for residents as they take the first steps toward rebuilding their lives.

Through this work, Jubilee has come to understand there are gaps in the system and in order to really be successful we need to meet individuals where they are. Jubilee’s expanded reentry initiative will provide a continuum of support for individuals as the return home from incarceration.

Two participants in the reentry program gave powerful testimonies about their experiences. One of the residents, spoke fondly about growing up in Adams Morgan, receiving two degrees from the University of the District of Columbia, and marrying her high school sweetheart. She also spoke about her past struggles with addiction and barriers to receiving proper treatment for her mental illness, which led her to make bad decisions that resulted in her incarceration. She has been living in Jubilee’s reentry house for close to a year and has been sober and in treatment for her mental illness the entire time. She is employed full time, has rebuilt relationships with her family and is stable, healthy, and productive.

After the presentation, Knight, Sharps, and Lindsay took questions and heard comments from neighbors. The outpouring of support from the community was powerful. While concerns were expressed, many residents were supportive of both justice housing and the reentry program.

Knight committed to keeping neighbors informed as Jubilee staff move forward with plans for expansion that helps to make Washington a city where all residents can thrive.

Returning Citizens to Celebrate New Beginnings at Jubilee Reentry Graduation

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Washington, DC — August 17, 2015 — Jubilee Housing will celebrate the graduation of six returning citizens on Friday, August 21, 2015 as they matriculate from the Reentry Housing Initiative (RHI), a program that helps returning citizens transition from incarceration back to the community, thereby dramatically increasing their chances for success while reducing the likelihood of recidivism.

The ceremony will be held at the Festival Center located at 1640 Columbia Road NW in Washington, DC and will begin at 5:30 p.m. Guests in attendance will include staff, partners, and friends and families of the graduating class.

Jubilee Housing’s RHI grew out of a realization that the needs of nearly 8,000 Washingtonians returning from incarceration each year were not being met. Launched as a small scale pilot in 2011, the program has grown to include two buildings serving up to 20 men and women at a time, pairing each resident with ongoing support, case management and connective services for up to one year. Eighteen men and women have found stability, self-sufficiency, and long-term housing through the program this year.

At the ceremony, graduates will share commencement addresses to inspire current members of the reentry program to let go of the past and choose a positive path for the life ahead of them. Graduates will also participate in the ceremonial passing of the Key to New Beginnings to current residents.

“We are excited to celebrate the accomplishments of these men and women who have worked so hard to begin to rebuild their lives,” said Jim Knight, president of Jubilee Housing. “It is a privilege to be able to support their incredible journeys through the platform of affordable housing and supportive community. We hope that others will be drawn to provide similar opportunities for men and women who are in their first weeks and months reengaging the community.”

Washington, DC has the fourth highest incarceration rate in the US, with nearly 5 percent of the District’s population incarcerated, on probation, or on parole. At the same time, DC releases as many as 8,000 individuals from jail each year to communities that offer little support for their successful return. The Urban Institute and the Abell Foundation found that about 20 percent of the annual returning population ended up in a cycle bouncing from homeless shelters and emergency room visits back to incarceration. RHI works to decrease that percentage and has done so successfully with only one instance of recidivism to date.

Jubilee Housing is a non-profit organization founded in 1973 to provide affordable housing and supportive services to economically disadvantaged residents of the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC. Jubilee serves more than 700 individuals and families, and has been a model for programs around the country seeking effective responses to the urban affordable housing crisis. The vision and purpose of Jubilee Housing is about more than providing housing, it is about making it possible for members of the Jubilee community to become their best selves in an atmosphere of supportive community.