When Carmen Ortega left prison in 2018, she knew that she needed a major life change. For more than five years, Ortega struggled with addiction and cycled in and out of incarceration, unable to secure a steady job or housing that would help keep her afloat.

“In between me coming out, coming in, coming out — I was, for four years straight, homeless. Every time I came out of the jail, I didn’t have nowhere to go,” Ortega, 52, told The 19th. “That is the biggest problem that we have when we come out of prison or jail. Because you don’t have that support, you go back to what you know….”

….In 2020, a nonprofit called the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) offered Ortega a lifeline: temporary cash assistance through the group’s Returning Citizens Stimulus program. She was one of more than 10,000 people who received three monthly payments of up to $2,750 each that aimed to help formerly incarcerated people across 28 cities during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic….

….Five years after the program, [an MDRC] report assessing its impact indicates that even short-term cash assistance payments can have significant benefits for formerly incarcerated people by reducing parole violations that often lead to reincarceration….

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