Housing is a Human Right. Not a Privilege.
“I'm always facing homelessness and going without basic needs like food and clothing. I have no professional clothes and shoes to wear for meetings or interviews. Most of my stuff has holes in it. My family's house burned down during a fire and we lost everything we had. Most days I feel lost in life and I don't know what I'm going to do. I never have enough money and it's becoming harder and harder to pay for gas in order to get to school.”
2022 Survey UC Berkeley Respondent
Housing is a Human Right — and a Foundation for Opportunity
Stable housing is the cornerstone of educational success and long‑term reentry outcomes. Yet justice‑impacted students, former foster youth, and system‑involved young adults continue to face structural barriers to securing safe, affordable housing — including discrimination, exclusionary screening practices, and a severe shortage of housing options aligned with their legal and educational realities.
Legacy House: Flagship Hybrid Reentry Housing
Legacy House is our flagship hybrid housing model, intentionally designed to serve adult reentry students and function as a mentorship anchor for system-involved youth transitioning from juvenile hall into higher education.
Located in West Oakland, just minutes from UC Berkeley and near a BART station, Legacy House is a five-bedroom home offering private rooms for formerly incarcerated and justice-impacted college students. Residents live in a stable, dignified, community-based environment that prioritizes autonomy, privacy, and academic focus.
What distinguishes Legacy House is its intergenerational design.
Adult reentry residents are not only tenants — they are peer mentors and role models for SYTF youth (System-Involved and Transition-Age Youth) exiting juvenile hall and enrolling in college or workforce pathways. Through proximity, shared lived experience, and intentional relationship-building, Legacy House creates a bridge between youth reentry and adult stability.
Our Housing Model: Least Restrictive, Community‑Anchored
Cre8Innovations is pioneering a Least Restrictive Housing (LRH) model designed specifically for justice‑impacted students and transition‑age adults pursuing higher education or workforce pathways.
Unlike traditional transitional housing or correction‑adjacent models, our approach:
Centers autonomy and adult decision‑making rather than compliance‑based rules
Not isolated institutional environments
Integrates residents into real neighborhoods, not isolated facilities
Aligns housing with education, employment, and reentry goals
Residents are treated as tenants and scholars — not clients — while still receiving intentional,
trauma‑informed support.
This model allows youth to:
Learn from adults who have successfully navigated reentry and higher education
Build trust with mentors who share lived experience
See a tangible pathway from confinement to college to community leadership
And it allows adult residents to:
Step into leadership and mentorship roles
Strengthen their own reentry and professional development
Contribute meaningfully to the next generation of justice-impacted students
Legacy House reflects our belief that the strongest reentry outcomes emerge when housing, mentorship, and education are structurally linked — not siloed.