Some people grow up with home being a peaceful place. While others discover it when they are older. For Project Rebound students living in the Sierra House, home is part of a new beginning.
In an effort to offer formerly incarcerated students equitable and sustainable shelter and support, Fresno State recently secured grant funding to offer housing options for Project Rebound students.
The first Sierra House residents moved in during May 2023. The house had its groundbreaking in the fall and is now home to six male students. The second house, for women, opened in January.
These houses are more than mere places to live. For the students living in these houses, they are home. And for some, they’re the first peaceful places where they’ve ever lived.
Fresno State is one of nine California State University campuses participating in the Project Rebound program. Project Rebound provides crucial resources to help formerly incarcerated individuals reintegrate into society and succeed with their academic and career goals.
“Fresno State’s Project Rebound program is making such an impactful and life-changing difference in the lives of our students who may have thought that a higher education degree was not attainable,” said Debbie Adishian-Astone, Fresno State’s vice president for administration and chief financial officer. “It has been an honor to work closely with the Project Rebound team to help provide support with the opening of the two homes. These homes are located in close proximity to the Fresno State campus and provide a safe and supportive living environment for our students, which has allowed these students to focus on their academic success and life skills.”
Individuals who have been incarcerated meet various barriers to social reintegration after serving their time. These barriers often inhibit the growth of individuals and foster a cycle of recidivism which can lead to being incarcerated again. Among those barriers is access to funding for school, jobs and housing.
Since 2016, the CSU system has conferred degrees to nearly 500 formerly incarcerated undergraduate and graduate students via Project Rebound.
Project Rebound has provided crucial support for these students. Project Rebound students maintain a 1% recidivism rate, compared to a 50% recidivism rate overall in the state of California.
The success of Project Rebound comes down to the opportunities it offers students. Formerly incarcerated students have a hard time qualifying for support like work-study or student housing. Housing is one of the most difficult resources for a formerly incarcerated person to secure.
According to a report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, formerly incarcerated people are 10 times more likely to be unhoused due to the fact that landlords and apartment complexes can deny access to housing simply for having been incarcerated.
A 2020 study found that obtaining safe housing is a crucial step for formerly incarcerated students to find a sense of belonging. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, belonging is necessary for “self-actualization” – or a person’s realization of their full potential.
A peaceful home
Abel is one of the students living in the Sierra House. He is passionate about dog training and working with animals to help teach people empathy and emotional intelligence.
Growing up, Abel never knew what a peaceful home felt like. Abel said that in his previous zip code he had a lot of “triggers – liquor store, friends and places.”
Living in the Sierra House, he is away from those triggers. There, he enjoys the peaceful sunrise over the Sierra Mountains every morning in the backyard of the house during his workout.
“You know, I was in a prison cell a year ago,” said Abel, “and to be here, I come outside and look at the Sierras in the morning, I just stand there and I’m just like, ‘wow,’ you know, I finally live a life that’s healthy, and I live in an environment where there’s no drugs, there’s no alcohol.”
Abel describes how living in the Sierra House gives him a peaceful environment where he can concentrate on his studies and work. But living at the house isn’t just a quiet roof over their heads. Abel says the other men living at the house are like family.
“I’ve never had this, this connection like I do here,” Abel said. “We have had situations where I got triggered, somebody else got triggered, or something got disrespected, and we sat down in a circle and we talked about it. Never escalated to violence. We sat down like healthy human beings and we talked about it.”
Diego, another student living in the Sierra House, also feels “blessed” living there. Previously, Diego lived in a halfway house.
Oftentimes people who were formerly incarcerated are placed or forced to live in halfway houses due to a lack of access to sustainable housing. Diego explains his experience was “wild” at the halfway house in comparison to living at the Sierra House.
“We saw guns being pulled out, people name calling and all this other stuff. So, getting away from that and coming here was an immediate change of environment,” Diego said.
Cohabitating with other students, along with his Project Rebound mentors, helps keep him focused and not feel alone, Diego said.
“You know, we’re in campus, we’re in academics, we’re in higher learning, so you feel like somebody’s looking out for you, but they’re pulling you in the right direction, which meant a lot to me.”
The members of the house all have chores, house meetings, school work and jobs. Like any home there are also strict rules the students must adhere to while living in the house.
Students living in the Sierra House can’t have pets, and while they can have guest visitors, guests can’t stay overnight. Before moving in, students review an extensive agreement explaining the dos and don’ts of the house.
But it’s not all work and no play.
The Sierra House has already hosted a handful of events in the short time it’s been open. In October, Project Rebound students and families were invited over to the house to celebrate the first Halloween party, and, in November, the Sierra House celebrated its Friendsgiving, a party that was funded by Gentile Real Estate.
The house also hosted a tree trimming, and, in December, Project Rebound students attended the Fresno Chaffee IllumiNature Zoo Lights show.
“You get that sense of community,” Diego said. “Just that energy, you know, and excitement and, always feeling a part of the community is always good too, because it always pulls you back to where you need to be or what you need to do.”
The future
In January, the Project Rebound women’s house, the Magnolia House, opened. The women’s house has the same rules and practices aimed at student support and success. The only difference is the women will be able to bring their children to live with them.
Project Rebound has hired housing assistant Marci Lopez to help manage the women’s house.
Lopez is a Fresno native who recently moved back after living and working in Hawaii.
Her background is in marriage and family therapy and substance-abuse treatment.
Before moving back to Fresno, Lopez helped create housing for single women fleeing domestic violence. Her experience has shown her firsthand the importance of having a safe home, especially if a person has a history with law enforcement.
Lopez said for women it can be a little more complicated to reintegrate back into society.
“When I was running our emergency shelter, a lot of times women who were coming into the shelter may have committed crimes, but a lot of times it was because of their abuser,” Lopez said.
The women’s house, like the men’s house, will offer the same sustainable housing and resources students need to succeed.
“[We] have worked together to support inmates who are transitioning back into the community, our local community here, and really understanding the support that they need,” Lopez said. “I’ve seen how important it is to be there, and to almost be like their family celebrating birthdays and just events that they haven’t been able to enjoy or participate in.”
The houses are currently leased for two years. The Project Rebound team is working to secure the necessary funding to purchase the house in the future, thus providing housing for Project Rebound students for many years to come.
To learn more about how Project Rebound and the Sierra House support educational success, please email projectrebound@mail.fresnostate.edu or call 559.278.2313. For information on how to support Project Rebound, contact Jatoi Harrison, director of development for the College of Social Sciences at Fresno State, at jatoih@csufresno.edu.
