The Jubilee Reentry Housing Initiative house for men sits quietly on a bustling Adams Morgan thoroughfare. Most people do not even know it is there, but Louis Sawyer Jr., makes his way there every night to instill hope in a population that society has written off.

Before joining Jubilee, Mr. Sawyer had and still does have deep roots in the advocacy community for returning citizens. Actually, he found Jubilee and asked us about our Reentry program before the program began. This is just one example of Mr. Sawyer purpose and passion.  

Jubilee Housing CEO Jim Knight likes to joke that Mr. Sawyer recruited us to hire him. He helped Jubilee with some of the early community bridge-building for Reentry programming and later became a cornerstone of the program and staff members.  Mr. Sawyer joined the Jubilee staff six years ago and helped open the men’s reentry house in January 2014.  Reentry is and always will be Mr. Sawyer’s ministry.

“He is a great gift to our organization and mission,” said Knight. “He brings an authenticity and passion that helps make our program work.”

At the men’s house, Mr. Sawyer is the Overnight Resident Monitor. He works alongside with the reentry team members to make sure our residents are in a clean and safe environment, so they can focus on rebuilding their lives. As someone with lived experience in the justice system, Mr. Sawyer prefers to offer the men he works with “a hand up, not a handout,” as he says, empowering them by sharing his own story of hope for the future.

Mr. Sawyer is a native Washingtonian, born and raised in the District. He feels a deep connection to the city and wants to see more justice housing throughout D.C. This is what keeps Mr. Sawyer motivated: his advancing the mission of Jubilee Housing in obtaining more affordable housing for very low-income residents.

When we asked Mr. Sawyer what he loves about D.C., he quickly answered, the people. “We all know D.C. is experiencing gentrification, but the opportunities to live in our city must be accessible to all of our residents,” he said. 

Mr. Sawyer believes in the words of the author of “Just Mercy” – Bryan Stevenson – “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.”

We are blessed to have Mr. Sawyer as part of the Jubilee Housing Reentry Initiative staff and look forward to continuing the important work of bringing about housing for our justice involved population.

Since this article was written, Mr. Sawyer was promoted to Community Outreach Coordinator.