Returning from Prison to a Changed City: How Does Gentrification Shape the Employment and Housing Opportunities of Returning Citizens?

Abstract

Studies of returning citizens have found they benefit from living in well-resourced neighborhoods, yet they face obstacles to securing housing in these communities. Insofar as gentrification involves investing more public and private resources into communities, this raises the question of how this investment affects returning citizens whose former homes are in gentrifying neighborhoods—a common circumstance in Washington, DC. Based on 37 in-depth interviews with returning citizens from Washington DC, this study explores the impact of gentrification. We find that the increased housing prices associated with gentrification make it difficult for returning citizens to move to gentrified areas; that gentrification exacerbates the barriers they face to accessing employment opportunities; and that gentrifiers often make returning citizens feel unwelcome in the communities where they were raised. In sum, we find that returning citizens, like other long-term residents of gentrifying neighborhoods, face structural barriers both to living in gentrified neighborhoods and to accessing available resources.