Creating a home for women who are experiencing freedom for the first time in decades
Five Keys created Home Free on Treasure Island in San Francisco — a first-of-its-kind transitional housing program that helps criminalized domestic violence survivors reenter communities and thrive. Here, formerly incarcerated women experience peaceful and humane transitions — from prison to freedom, from “victim” to “survivor ” — while correcting a gross injustice that diminishes our civil society.
Home Free grew out of discussions between elected officials, legislators, domestic violence and prison reform advocates, and representatives from law enforcement. In 2012, Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Fiona Ma sponsored the “Sin by Silence” legislation, signed by Governor Brown, allowing women survivors of domestic violence who were convicted of killing their batterer (or were at the scene of murder under the coercion of their abuser) to seek legal review of their extreme and mostly unjust sentences.
Our programs include financial, technology literacy, job, and computer training classes. We also are a sanctuary for physical, emotional, and spiritual counseling and healing.
