Abe Brown Ministries wins national grant to expand reentry housing program

Abe Brown Ministries, a Hillsborough County nonprofit with a mission to help released inmates break the cycle of incarceration and build a new future, is one of a handful of organizations across the country to win funding through a new initiative focused on reentry housing programs.

In late 2024, national nonprofit Impact Justice awarded a combined $800,000 to the six organizations through the National Housing Incubator Award. The program, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance, received 128 applications from 26 states.

“Our proposal to Impact Justice was to provide bridge housing to formerly incarcerated people,” says Abe Brown Ministries President Robert Blount, III.

With the money, Abe Brown Ministries plans to expand supportive housing for individuals who are under community supervision or recently released, providing them privacy and dignity, addressing the affordable housing crisis, and providing stability for returning citizens in low-income communities. This new program will help Abe Brown Ministries add a sixth transitional living home that will house six returning citizens. They will each have their own bedroom and share a kitchen, dining room, and living room.

Breaking the cycle of incarceration

Abraham Brown founded the nonprofit in 1976 as Prison Crusade Ministries, Inc. In 2000, the name was changed to Abe Brown Ministries Inc. The nonprofit’s focus is helping released inmates avoid recidivism and build a positive future. Blount has worked with released inmates for 22 years. He says the cycle of incarceration is a vicious circle in which people get incarcerated, get out, and go back. 

The organization works with individuals convicted in or out of Hillsborough County who now reside at a correctional institution within 120 miles of Tampa. The need is significant. A July 2024 report from the Florida Office of Economic & Demographic Research shows Hillsborough County had the fifth-highest number of new incarcerations in the state during the 2023-24 fiscal year. For that year, Hillsborough also had the state’s second-highest number of new year-and-a-day sentences, short sentences that allow early release for good behavior.

With the expansion that the Impact Justice grant helps fund, Abe Brown Ministries' reentry housing program has six houses. All of them are located on North 29th Street (also known as Abe Brown Way) near the nonprofit’s offices in East Tampa. Twenty-four previously incarcerated individuals stay in the nonprofit’s transitional living houses. Other clients live outside this area through community partnerships the organization has established.  

Through its extensive reentry program, Abe Brown Ministries wants “to restore a level of dignity” to their clients and help them get back on track, explains Blount.

“We want to make sure that we are not releasing people from prison to a homeless situation,” he says.

Having a roof over their heads brings a sense of stability and that’s key to breaking
the cycle of incarceration, Blount says.

Abe Brown Ministries President Robert Blount, III“Housing is fundamental to formerly incarcerated people,” he says. “‘Where am I going to stay?’ is the most common question these individuals ask following their release after many years in prison.” 

Employment, workforce training, and transportation are also key focus areas in the effort to reduce recidivism. To that end, the 12-month reentry program provides six weeks of workforce training, bus passes, and food assistance.

“Without income, housing, and sometimes education, people released from jail most of them go into survival mode when they don’t have the basic needs,” Blount says. “They are ready to do things out of character to survive.”

Blount says criminal background checks, lack of job skills, and limited job opportunities remain a heavy weight on the shoulders of formerly incarcerated individuals seeking work to support themselves.

The recidivism rate in Hillsborough has declined in recent years. A 2024 Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) report looks at the 36-month recidivism rate for incarcerated people released in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Over that span, Hillsborough’s 36-month recidivism rate declined from 26.9 percent to 20 percent to 18.9 percent. The state’s recidivism rate is approximately 25 percent, Blount says.

The FDC released 2,067 individuals in November 2024. The current inmate population in Florida prisons was 87,973 for that month, according to a FDC monthly report. FDC is the largest state agency with a budget of more than $3.6 billion. In light of those large numbers, Abe Brown Ministries and similar programs not only help released inmates who are returning to the community but work to reduce the prison population and slow rising prison spending.

For more information, go to Abe Brown Ministries