Housing and Community Healing: An Interview with Nadine Horton
Jun 03, 2025
In this Housing and... interview, community researcher Nadine Horton shares how the True Haven initiative supports community healing through housing, trauma-informed care, and financial empowerment. Explore how housing stability can interrupt cycles of harm and become a foundation for individual and neighborhood well-being.
“Housing and…” is CHFA’s ongoing interview series that explores how housing intersects with and influences key sectors that shape our communities, including health, education, economic opportunity, and more. Each installment features insights from thought leaders, highlighting the critical role housing plays in shaping broader societal outcomes.
In this installment, we turn our attention to community healing. In communities impacted by incarceration, redlining, and gun violence, housing alone isn’t enough. What’s needed is healing—personal, communal, and systemic. Nadine Horton, a community researcher at Yale School of Medicine and Community Program Manager at the Yale SEICHE Center for Health and Justice, joins us to discuss how housing, trauma-informed care, and financial empowerment can work together to stabilize lives and restore trust. Our conversation explores how healing begins with the individual and extends outward to strengthen entire communities, as evident in the True Haven initiative that Nadine supports. A collaboration between Yale University and the Urban League of Southern Connecticut, True Haven provides services for those formerly involved in the justice system and their families in two main areas: housing support and mental wellness. Currently being piloted in select New Haven neighborhoods, participants will receive intense financial education and short-term housing assistance. The initiative also trains community members and organization leaders in trauma-informed counseling.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Marcus Smith: From your perspective, what does it mean for a neighborhood to heal—and why does housing play such a central role in that process?
Nadine Horton: Our work with the first R01 study focused on mitigating the effects of gun violence in New Haven by building social cohesion. What we found is that, when violence came into a neighborhood, it wasn't affecting all streets the same. Those streets with stronger social networks—where people knew their neighbors, looked out for one another, and valued community assets like barbershops, salons, and trusted residents—were more resilient. These places didn’t necessarily have big investments like community centers, but they had people who cared, who kept their streets clean, who checked in on each other. That made all the difference.
Mental health and trauma came up again and again. In many underserved neighborhoods, constant exposure to gun violence becomes normalized. People stop flinching when they hear gunshots. They begin to believe, "that's just the way it is." But we know that kind of normalization is not "normal." Our community advisory board emphasized the need for access to trauma-informed care and mental health care, access to trusted people – not just professionals, but barbers, grandmothers, neighbors – who could offer support.
Another thing that came out of that first study was a lack of access to safe, affordable housing – particularly for folks who are justice involved.* Often times whatever housing they can access is in unsafe neighborhoods, effectively bringing them right back to the environments they were living in when they were incarcerated. That led us to the intervention arm of the study, which is what True Haven is.
MS: Let's dig into True Haven. What are some of the most persistent or underestimated challenges that justice-involved individuals face when trying to secure stable housing?
NH: We asked, what if we provided people returning home from incarceration with the means to access safe, affordable housing? And alongside that support, the financial literacy piece is just as important. Because someone who has been incarcerated for 15-20 years – you went to prison when you were young, so you never learned how to pay bills or save money. Many folks return to find their credit ruined from identity misuse while they were incarcerated.
We also recognized the need to address the trauma people were carrying, recognizing the need for self-care and for finding support through trusted neighbors. We know that unstable housing and lack of social supports can lead to chronic health conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes. Taking that stress away not only helps you feel better as a person, but then you can say to someone else, “I see something's going on with you. I think you should go see a doctor or mental health professional.” And now you're strengthening your neighborhood and by extension, your city.
MS: From a policy or systems perspective, what changes would make the biggest difference in supporting housing as a platform for community healing?
NH: One of the biggest challenges is background checks. Even when someone has strong references, work history, and money saved up, a past conviction can cause landlords to shut the door. We've been advocating for policies that reduce the look-back window for background checks – in some places it's currently 20 or 30 years. What if it were just five? Or even less? And what if people could appeal their case individually?
Another idea is to create a list of vetted landlords who are willing to rent to folks returning home from incarceration. Cities could offer a kind of insurance policy that protects landlords for the first few months of a lease—say, three to six months—long enough so you see that this is going to be a good tenant. If issues come up, the city would help cover the cost of property damage or lost rent.
From the research side, it’s important to build credibility. With True Haven, our partnership with community organizations like the Urban League of Southern CT keeps things grounded in lived experience, but we’re also holding the work to a high academic standard. That means we can replicate it. We started in New Haven because it’s our home base—we know the people, the systems. But the goal is to expand to places like Hartford, Bridgeport, Waterbury. Having rigorous data and a model that can scale will help us get there.
MS: What has working on community healing through housing (and other supports) taught you that you wish more people understood?
NH: I was born and raised in New Haven. We always prided ourselves on having strong social services, and I thought we had a robust reentry system. But we don’t. It was eye-opening to see how many people struggle to find housing here. There’s still a real divide when it comes to justice-involved individuals.
People often focus on what communities don’t have. But we found that taking an asset-based approach can yield solutions that don’t always require big money. Neighborhood cookouts, community gardens, simple acts of care-- these are things people can build on.
With True Haven, we start with the individual. If we can help one person feel strong and healthy, that person will go out and influence others. People listen to those they know. By virtue of me helping you, you start to buy into the system, and trust grows.
MS: Taking an asset-based approach almost seems harder, in a way. We can't necessarily finance empathy or connection or the will to act. We have to put something of ourselves into it. That sounds challenging.
NH: It is challenging, but it's not impossible. This would be my sincere hope: the more we start to think about things that way – start looking at what we have – people won't feel so overwhelmed. Because we don't have “nothing.” We do have things that are working with little or no money. And we have a lot of creative people who have lived in these communities for a very long time. They're happy. Let's talk to them. Let's get some ideas. Sometimes it’s really just about bringing people together. Get to know your neighbor down the street, the one who you never talked to before. Now every morning on your way to the bus stop, you're saying hello to that person. They're saying hello to you. And that brightens your day. It starts with you, then to your neighborhood, and then it goes out from there.
*Nadine uses the term “justice involved” to refer to anyone who is convicted, has been convicted, or has been incarcerated. For more on de-stigmatizing language surrounding those impacted by the criminal justice system, visit https://lincnc.org/language-of-incarceration-2/
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Marcus Smith is the Director of Research, Marketing, and Outreach at the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA), where he helps drive statewide impact through data-informed strategies and compelling storytelling. With over two decades in mission-driven roles, Marcus has dedicated his career to expanding access to affordable, stable housing. His prior experience includes leadership in healthy housing initiatives at Connecticut Children's Medical Center and community development with Sheldon Oak Central. He holds a BA from the University of New Hampshire and an MBA from the University of Connecticut.