'Orange Is the New Black' Cast Members Help Renovate Home for Formerly Incarcerated Women

EAST VILLAGE, NY — Cast members of the TV show "Orange is the New Black" joined over 100 volunteers from nonprofit Rebuilding Together on Saturday to renovate the Sarah Powell Huntington House, a homeless shelter in the East Village that houses women recently released from prison and their children.

Rebuilding Together, a nonprofit dedicated to volunteer building projects, collaborated with the Women's Prison Association (WPA) as part of its She Builds national project to renovate the Sarah Powell Huntington House, which still had a flooded basement from Hurricane Sandy four years ago. It also needed a good paint job.

The WPA has owned and operated the Sarah Powell Huntington House for 25 years. The building developed as an answer to the catch 22 for women who are released from prison: moms with inadequate housing were prevented from having their children returned to them, but they could also not qualify for family shelter assistance or adequate housing without already having their children in their care, according to Diana McHugh, director of communications at Women's Prison Association.

The population of the house has since broadened to women who were recently released from prison as well as women who are considered at-risk of recidivism.

Piper Kerman, the author of the book, "Orange is the New Black," serves on the board of the WPA, and has connected the cast members of the TV show with some of WPA's projects. That's how two of the show's cast members — Annie Golden, who plays the mute inmate Norma Romano, and Alysia Reiner, who plays Natalie "Fig" Figueroa — found out about Saturday's Sarah Powell Huntington House project.

Golden and Reiner — who brought her 7-year-old daughter and husband — painted for hours on Saturday.

"Ever since we all started getting cast in 'Orange is the New Black' and we met Piper Kerman, I think I speak for all of us when I say that our newfound charity was incarcerated women, and how forgotten they are in society," Golden told Patch.

Golden has participated in several other WPA projects, like helping the women's children pack their backpacks for their first week of school, or donating clothes for their job interviews.

Reiner has been active with the WPA for several years. The actor won the 2014 Sarah Powell Huntington Leadership Award for her collaboration with jewelry company KiraKira to design a locket dedicated to WPA.

"I love what they do to stop recidivism," Reiner told Patch about the WPA. "Stacking the deck for these women for when they come out is huge. Giving them a place to stay, helping them with jobs, giving them social work services is ginormous in reference to helping the possibility of them not falling into old patterns.

"We all know that we all fall into old patterns, getting into our own heads, you know, with boys or with work. It's really hard, especially when you're so vulnerable coming out of prison."

Women who are referred to the WPA by the Department of Homeless Services live in the house as single women, work with a case manager to rebuild stability in their lives and become gainfully employed, and then they can go through the process of reunifying legally with their children, and eventually live with their children in the house. This eliminates the need for single and family housing, which is often nearly impossible to obtain with a criminal record, McHugh said.

According to McHugh, women who are formerly incarcerated face a set of challenges distinct from those men face coming out of prison, and the house is meant to nip those in the bud. Many women who are imprisoned have a history of sexual violence committed against them, which is not common in men. Women also often face mental illness and the stress of single motherhood, McHugh said.

"Men also have visitors in prison," McHugh said. "Women have fewer visitors because it's the women who bring the kids to visit the men. And when the women are in prison, they're not necessarily getting that same amount of support from the community."

Kimberly George, executive director of Rebuilding Together NYC, said the turnover rate at the Sarah Powell Huntington House is so fast that there's not a lot of opportunity to fix up the apartments in between families.

"The second women move out into permanent housing, there are other families waiting to come in," George said.

The flooded basement caused a mold infestation, and Rebuilding Together was able to conduct a $20,000 mold remediation project before Saturday, George said. "Because when you combine mold with children, the outcome is not good," she added.

Laura Jackson, 36, has been treasurer of Rebuilding Together for three years and painted the part of the house near the entryway all day Saturday. Jackson has a full-time job doing tax work for large real estate companies, an occupation she called very "corporate." Rebuilding Together helps her feel like she's giving back to the community.

"I think about how lucky I am to be able to go home and have a nice safe and healthy home, and how much that means to me and my family," Jackson told Patch. "I wish that everyone in New York could feel the same way."

Photo credits: Sarah Kaufman/Patch