Where Freedom Begins: Healing Centered Housing for Justice Impacted Women

Affordable housing and homelessness

East LA South LA South Bay Long Beach

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Formerly incarcerated women, especially women of color, are forced to navigate barriers to housing, safety, and stability due to systematic racism, poverty, and gender bias. Although formerly incarcerated women are 35 % more likely to experience homelessness than men, most reentry programs ignore their unique needs. Substance misuse, poverty, unemployment, and physical and mental illness are factors that are often overlooked as barriers to women’s successful reentry. With limited housing options, many formerly incarcerated women have no choice but to take part in punitive, surveillance-reliant programs that often replicate similar conditions the women faced while incarcerated. Without access to holistic, gender-responsive, and trauma-informed housing, formerly incarcerated women can become trapped in cycles of incarceration. To be a truly inclusive Los Angeles, we must center the needs of formerly incarcerated women and invest in housing rooted in care, equity, and mutual aid.

For over 25 years, ANWOL has redefined reentry housing by creating healing-centered homes for formerly incarcerated women across Los Angeles, with a focus on women of color. Grounded in racial equity, our housing model resists replicating carceral systems by refusing practices of control and instead cultivates spaces of accountability and mutual support.
In the first 30 days, women take part in a reflection period where they can unlearn carceral habits, and discover the person they want to become. Supported by mindfulness practices and empathetic structure, women transition from a state of crisis into one where they realize their abundant capacities. With guidance from the formerly incarcerated women that organize our homes, residents practice the autonomy denied to them while incarcerated. They relearn how to care for themselves and one another that prioritizes their healing.
With capacity to serve up to 80 women at any given time, ANWOL offers individualized and therapeutic approaches to address formerly incarcerated women's multidimensional needs to housing insecurity. Our nationally replicated model is evidence that safe housing isn’t simply a matter of shelter, but a transformative infrastructure for an inclusive LA. With LA2050’s support, we will deepen and sustain our housing program. Together, we can expand a proven model that not only ends housing insecurity for justice-impacted women but reimagines what reentry can look like in a just and inclusive Los Angeles.

ANWOL’s success will transform Los Angeles County into a place where formerly incarcerated women have the sustainable resources they need and no longer face housing insecurity as a result of systemic neglect. By addressing the root causes like poverty, incarceration, and racial injustice, our trauma-informed housing model promotes stability, autonomy, and healing. We are creating a community rooted in collective care, where mutual aid replaces reentry services predicated on punishment. With safe housing and the tools to rebuild their lives, more women will have access to permanent housing, achieve economic independence, and avoid recidivism. Our holistic approach will reduce stigma, strengthen communities, and highlight the leadership of formerly incarcerated women. With 12 homes in LA and replicated in 30 US cities, and 3 countries, ANWOL’s model is both proven and scalable. We hope to expand locally, ensuring every woman returning home has a pathway to safety, dignity, and freedom.