Sessions
Adaptive Reuse for Affordable Housing
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Thu
JoAnne Page has more than 45 years’ experience in criminal justice and human services, with the last 30+ at the helm of The Fortune Society, a non-profit organization that serves and advocates for formerly incarcerated individuals and people with criminal justice involvement. Her prior experience includes six years as Director of Court Operations at the Court Employment Project, now CASES, where she developed New York City’s first felony Alternative to Incarceration (ATI) program. That program is still running strong and is one of the premier ATI programs in New York City.
Under Ms. Page’s stewardship, The Fortune Society has been recognized by researchers and policy makers as a pioneer in assisting former prisoners to reintegrate into society. With a $40 million annual budget and staff of approximately 300 (more than half of whom are formerly incarcerated), the organization serves more than 9,000 people in a typical year through programs including ATI, permanent, supportive and scatter site housing, mental health services, education, employment services, substance abuse treatment, counseling, family services, care management, a recovery center and HIV/AIDS health services.
Fortune’s innovative and successful initiatives have become models for similar programs across the country. For example, Fortune’s pioneering AIDS reentry and community services were federally funded in the 1990s as a Special Project of National Significance through six consecutive competitive funding cycles. Another national model was launched by Ms. Page in 2002 with the opening of the groundbreaking Fortune Academy (also known as The Castle), an innovative supportive residence in West Harlem providing emergency and transitional housing for formerly incarcerated homeless individuals. At the request of New York State, Fortune’s housing model was replicated in Syracuse New York through Fortune technical assistance and a groundbreaking partnership between a community-based organization and the Syracuse Housing Authority.
In 2010, Fortune opened “Castle Gardens,” a mixed-use, affordable and green apartment complex located next to the Academy. The 110,000 square-foot building provides 114 apartments for formerly incarcerated individuals and low-income families from the local community. It also offers 20,000 square feet of service space. In April, 2020, during the height of the COVID pandemic, Fortune opened Freedom House, a 38 bed emergency and transitional residence housing men with behavioral health issues who otherwise would have been incarcerated. In January, 2022, Fortune purchased a building that was being used as an illegal hotel and will be converting it to permanent supportive and affordable housing. Other housing projects are in the Fortune pipeline, and Fortune’s housing model is being explored for technical assistance or replication in several sites across the country.
Among her areas of criminal justice and human services expertise are:
• Criminal justice and correctional reform
• Mental illness and the criminal justice system
• Homelessness and emergency/transitional/permanent supportive housing
• Race and the criminal justice system
• Reentry issues and services
• Housing and employment discrimination against justice impacted persons
A graduate of Yale Law School, and a former defense attorney, JoAnne Page is a frequent speaker at conferences and in the media about alternatives to incarceration, housing, and criminal justice issues. She has been recognized over the years for her work, including being named one of the most effective nonprofit leaders by City and State during each of the last three years.