59° and Clear
MINNEAPOLIMEDIA NEWS | Minnesota Reports 57% Drop in People Leaving Prison Into Homelessness Since 2021
State corrections officials say housing investments have reduced homeless releases, but nearly 13% of people leaving Minnesota prisons in 2025 still went to homeless or unknown destinations
SAINT PAUL, MN (September 9, 2026). Minnesota has reduced the number of people leaving state prisons for homelessness by 57% since 2021, according to a new Department of Corrections analysis showing substantial progress alongside a persistent housing problem for people returning to their communities after incarceration.
The Minnesota Department of Corrections released 4,813 people from state correctional facilities during 2025.
Approximately 13% of those releases were to locations classified as homeless or unknown, according to the department's 2025 Homelessness Report.
That remained a significant number of people leaving incarceration without confirmed stable housing, but the department says the situation has improved markedly over the past several years.
There were 75 fewer homeless releases in 2025 than in 2024.
Since 2021, the overall number of releases into any form of homelessness has fallen 57%, while releases to homeless locations classified as unknown have declined 47%.
Corrections officials attribute the improvement partly to increased state investment in housing stability.
Legislation enacted in 2023 expanded rental assistance and housing-stability services and provided additional staff dedicated to the work.
During 2025, the Department of Corrections spent $500,000 in appropriated funding and directed another $169,592 toward rental assistance intended to prevent homelessness after release.
That means at least $669,592 was directed to the rental-assistance effort and associated appropriated housing work identified in the department's report.
Housing can be one of the most difficult obstacles confronting people leaving prison.
Individuals returning from incarceration may have limited income, damaged credit, previous evictions or criminal histories that make landlords reluctant to rent to them. Some leave prison without family members or friends able to provide housing.
The consequences extend beyond shelter.
Stable housing can affect a person's ability to maintain employment, attend supervision appointments, receive healthcare, obtain identification, participate in treatment and rebuild family relationships after incarceration.
Minnesota's strategy has increasingly treated housing stability as part of the transition from prison back into the community rather than as an issue entirely separate from corrections.
The 2023 legislative investment provided the department with additional staffing as well as rental assistance, allowing DOC to consolidate and streamline housing services.
The new figures indicate that approach has coincided with a sharp decline in homelessness at the point of release.
But the 2025 numbers also show the problem has not disappeared.
With approximately 13% of 4,813 releases still classified as homeless or going to an unknown location, hundreds of people left Minnesota correctional facilities last year without a confirmed stable housing destination.
The department's report therefore presents two realities at once: Minnesota has substantially reduced prison releases into homelessness since 2021, but a significant portion of people leaving incarceration remain vulnerable to housing instability immediately upon reentering their communities.
The longer-term question is whether those housing interventions translate into durable stability after the initial transition from prison.
The homelessness report measures where people are released and the state's efforts to secure housing. It should not, by itself, be interpreted as evidence that housing assistance has produced a particular reduction in recidivism unless separate corrections data establish that relationship.
That distinction matters when evaluating the effectiveness of the investment.
The 57% decline demonstrates substantial improvement in one measurable outcome: fewer Minnesotans are leaving state prison directly into homelessness than four years earlier.
It does not eliminate the need to determine what happens to those individuals months and years after release.
STAY CONNECTED TO MINNEAPOLIMEDIA
Local stories matter. Subscribe free to MinneapoliMedia and receive independent news, community reporting and important updates from Minneapolis, the North Metro and communities across Minnesota.
SUBSCRIBE FREE: https://minneapolimedia.town.news/subscribe
MinneapoliMedia | Community. Culture. Civic Life
