Surmiche Vaughn and Scott Patterson have turned their Oakland home into a landing spot for men stepping out of prison after decades behind bars, and 24 men have stayed with the couple over the past three years. The couple usually keeps about five men at a time, according to reporting published Saturday by The New York Times.
How the Homecoming Project Works
The arrangement runs through the Homecoming Project, an initiative of the Oakland-based nonprofit Impact Justice, which pays for participants to live with host families for roughly six months, according to the New York Times reporting by Soumya Karlamangla, with Jesse Barron contributing reporting and Sheelagh McNeill contributing research, published by The New York Times. Impact Justice itself says on its program FAQ that a participant typically lives with a community host for six months during the program period. The organization covers the host payments directly, and Vaughn and Patterson receive about $1,500 per tenant per month for opening their doors, per the Times account.
Reported figures for host pay have varied by year. A 2023 report from the San Francisco Chronicle put the rate at $45 per day, or about $1,350 a month, funded through private donations and state grants, while a November 2025 report from The San Francisco Standard described hosts being paid $50 per day, up to $1,550 per month. Impact Justice says its funding comes from state grants and family foundations.
Who Gets Matched, and Who Doesn't
Impact Justice screens candidates before a match is made, per the Times reporting. The organization's own FAQ describes a more detailed process: an interview, a review of validated assessments required by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and a look at each person's readiness, goals, and support needs. Participants are also asked to verify completion of at least three in-custody rehabilitative programs, Impact Justice says, and people with a sexual-offense conviction are not eligible to take part.
Bernadette Butler leads the Homecoming Project at Impact Justice, according to the Times. Most participants have served prison sentences of 10 years or longer and are commonly convicted of murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, or robbery, the newspaper reported.
Life Inside the House
The couple has hosted a Thanksgiving get-together.
Philippe Kelly moved in with Vaughn and Patterson in 2023 after serving more than two decades in prison for a fatal shooting he committed as a teenager, the Times reported. He now works as an organizer at a nonprofit promoting civil rights and criminal justice reform and told the paper that reentry after prison was difficult. By comparison, the Times noted that California prison releases typically provide just $200 to people leaving custody.
Program Growth and Reported Outcomes
The Homecoming Project began in 2018 and has matched about 130 hosts with people leaving prison since then, operating in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, according to the Times. The San Francisco Public Defender's Office announced on Nov. 13, 2025, that the project is expanding into San Francisco, after first launching in Alameda County and later expanding to West Contra Costa and Los Angeles counties. The announcement said more than 200 participants had been placed so far and that 98% graduated with a job or had enrolled in job training or an educational program.
Impact Justice has reported no returns to prison among more than 200 participants. The San Francisco Standard separately reported that since the project's 2018 inception, more than 200 people had participated and none had reoffended, according to the nonprofit.
Statewide data complicates any easy comparison. The Public Policy Institute of California has reported that participation in at least one education, employment, or rehabilitation program among people released from California prisons rose from 46% in 2015 to 64% in 2019, even as more than half of people with prior prison histories and 43% of first-time releases were rearrested for felonies. PPIC has cautioned that its research does not attempt to connect recidivism to program participation.
The Oakland arrangement echoes an earlier pilot phase described by KQED, which reported that the Alameda County project began by matching six men leaving prison after long sentences with local hosts, with Impact Justice covering their rent for six months and hoping to expand to 25 participants by year's end. Impact Justice has said it knows of no other model that subsidizes existing, underused living space specifically to support people leaving prison during reentry.
