The city could join New Jersey, Seattle and San Francisco in curtailing the ability of landlords to vet applicants’ criminal histories.
Housing All New Yorkers: A Response to Mayor Adams’ Blueprint for Housing and Homelessness
June 15, 2022 (NEW YORK, NY) – The Fair Chance for Housing Coalition commends Mayor Adams for highlighting the critical issue of housing discrimination against people with convictions in “Housing Our Neighbors: A Blueprint for Housing and Homelessness.” We also applaud the Mayor’s recognition of the devastating prison-to-shelter pipeline, and his promise to work with the State to provide housing opportunities for New Yorkers exiting correctional facilities. We are committed to taking a real stand against discrimination and ensuring that all New Yorkers have access to safe and stable housing.
“After incarceration, you work on yourself, you save money, and you get excited and start imagining a life in a new home. Then they do a background check, and you know that you're going to be turned down.” said Vilma Donovan, about her experience of housing discrimination.
"Eliminating applicants just because of a background check, with no regard to who they are and what they've done to be where they are at this point in time – you’re punishing people forever,” said Hilton Webb, Jr., who has also struggled to find housing after incarceration.
Nearly 750,000 New York City residents have conviction records – 11% of the adult population. As the Mayor noted in his Blueprint, housing providers too often deny homes to people with convictions. In fact, one survey covering 14 states, including New York, found that 79 percent of formerly incarcerated people and their families reported being denied housing due to a conviction.
Notably, HUD issued a memo regarding how the Fair Housing Act applies to the use of criminal history by providers or operators of housing and real-estate related transactions on June 10, 2022 saying, "Private housing providers should consider not using criminal history to screen tenants for housing. Criminal history is not a good predictor of housing success. Most housing providers are not required by law to exclude persons with criminal histories as tenants and can rely instead on other screening criteria that more closely relate to whether an applicant or resident would be a good tenant, such as ability to pay rent, prior rental history, or personal references.”
Therefore, the best way to protect New Yorkers from discrimination is to pass strong Fair Chance for Housing legislation to prohibit the use of background checks in most housing applications. This is straightforward to enforce, and it would provide a strong deterrent to discriminatory practices. Similar legislation has passed in Seattle, Oakland, and Berkeley, and provides real protections for people with convictions. In contrast, “ban-the-box” laws only delay the conviction record question until later in the application process, and still allow too much room for subjective decision-making and bias. It also creates an administrative burden on housing providers, who are required to follow multi-step processes and complete extensive documentation. We also know that the background check industry is largely unregulated and frequently produces erroneous records; one lawsuit found that a single background check company produced 11,000 inaccurate renter background reports between 2014 and 2019.
It is clear: housing discrimination against New Yorkers with convictions is a racial justice issue. It’s no secret that America’s policing, arrest, and incarceration policies have disproportionately impacted communities of color. As a result, 80% of New Yorkers with convictions are Black or Latinx. Therefore, we cannot end racial discrimination in housing without ending conviction record discrimination. We thank the Mayor for acknowledging that this is an issue of advancing racial equity.
This is also a public safety issue. As described in the Blueprint, “Homelessness puts individuals at greater risk of contact with the criminal justice system and increases the likelihood of being formally punished for minor infractions and crimes of survival. Meanwhile, people with criminal justice histories have a harder time accessing permanent housing and the employment opportunities needed to sustain housing payments. These dual challenges cause some individuals to end up in a constant cycle between shelter and jail/prison, making it harder to access services in either system and creating enormous public costs.” Research clearly shows that providing greater access to housing makes communities safer.
To that end, we look forward to working with the Mayor and City Council to pass meaningful Fair Chance for Housing legislation that truly ends housing discrimination, keeps families together, and builds strong, safe communities.
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Loopholes Hobble Hochul’s Proposal on Conviction-Based Housing Discrimination, Critics Charge
Advocates organizing for similar laws say loopholes in Hochul’s proposal make it “virtually meaningless,” and are encouraging the governor to withdraw the measure.
CITY COUNCIL FAILS THE MOST MARGINALIZED NEW YORKERS BY REJECTING VOTE ON INTRO 2047 DESPITE MAJORITY SUPPORT
For Immediate Release
CITY COUNCIL FAILS THE MOST MARGINALIZED NEW YORKERS
BY REJECTING VOTE ON INTRO 2047 DESPITE MAJORITY SUPPORT
The Fair Chance for Housing Coalition condemns City Council for succumbing to fear-mongering and pressure from real estate lobbyists, leaving thousands of people with past conviction records stuck in shelter and unstable housing
CONTACT: Alison Wilkey, alison@fairchancehousing.org, 917-399-2292
(NEW YORK, NY – December 15, 2021) – Today, New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson failed to bring Intro 2047 to a vote, despite a majority of council members supporting the bill and support from Mayor de Blasio. The bill would have protected the nearly 750,000 New York City residents who have a conviction history from housing discrimination–88% of whom are Black and Latinx. The City Council squandered an opportunity to enact a measure that would have had a significant impact on lowering the number of people living in shelter and in the streets.
The Fair Chance for Housing Coalition worked tirelessly to pass this historic legislation aimed at lowering the number of people living in shelter and expanding access to housing to families impacted by the criminal legal system. Housing discrimination is one of the most serious problems faced by people with a conviction record, no matter how old the conviction.
According to DHS data, a top reason people enter shelter is recent release from jail or prison. It costs $3,800 a month to house a person in emergency shelter and $37,000 a month to detain a person at Rikers Island. The bill would have been a significant step toward reducing the number of people in shelter and living on the streets without any cost to taxpayers and no liability for landlords. Research shows that a conviction record reduces the probability by over 50 percent that a landlord in NYC will even allow a prospective tenant to view an apartment.
Research also shows that providing greater access to housing would make NYC safer, as stable housing gives people exiting incarceration the stability to move forward with their lives and avoid behavior that can result in re-incarceration. Access to housing reduces the time spent on the street after incarceration, reducing the likelihood that people will run afoul of laws that criminalize homelessness, such as laws against loitering, sleeping in public, and panhandling.
The bill’s sponsor, Council Member Stephen Levin, has a strong record of enacting measures to address homelessness in New York City, including increasing housing voucher amounts to cover a fair market rent so families could move out of shelter. He championed the bill as a matter of fairness and justice, saying that “Safe and stable housing is a right every New Yorker deserves, yet conviction records continue to be used to punish and discriminate against people long after they have left the criminal legal system.” At a recent City Council hearing, the NYC Department of Homeless Services said the jail-to-shelter pipeline is the biggest reason people languish in shelter. Intro 2047 would have gone far toward addressing this, if the City Council had acted.
A majority of council members supported the bill and have spoken out in favor of passing Intro 2047, including Council Members Carlina Rivera, Keith Powers, Tiffany Caban, and Alicka Ampry-Samuel. It also had the support of Speaker-hopeful Adrienne Adams.
But some council members were turned away from the bill by the fear-mongering of the Rent Stabilization Association, a property-owners and real estate industry interest group who also opposed the eviction moratorium enacted in response to COVID-19 and 2019 changes to the Rent Stabilization Law to expand protections from tenants and preserve rent stabilized housing in New York City. Intro 2047, also opposed by the Rent Stabilization Association, would have increased critical housing access at a time when the eviction moratorium is ending in January.
At the bill introduction in August 2020, Council Member Robert Cornegy, Chair of the Housing Committee, said “We must dismantle the many obstacles to reintegration that justice-involved individuals face and this Fair Chance for Housing Act would do precisely that. We need to center fairness, equity, and inclusion in crafting housing policy for our shared communities. Alongside colleagues and advocates, I look forward to continuing to promote these principles as we advance the Fair Chance for Housing Act and make inroads in this key area of stability and well-being.” As the bill moved forward, he flip-flopped and revoked his sponsorship, as did Council Members Vallone and Koslowitz.
Inaccurate news stories also played a role. A factually wrong CB2 News story characterized the bill as “11th hour attempt” and alleged that the Council was ramming through the bill. In fact, the bill was introduced in City Council in August 2020, public hearings on the bill were held in September 2020, and the bill had been pending with strong support for 16 months.
Council members and the Speaker had an opportunity to leave a legacy of justice by ending unfettered discrimination, decreasing the number of people living in shelter, and increasing safety. They failed the most vulnerable New York City residents.
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Housing bill meant to give ‘fair chance’
Advocates fighting for a bill to prevent housing discrimination are making a final push to have legislation passed by the end of the year.
The New York City Council Fair Chance for Housing Act, Intro 2047, would prohibit landlords and real estate brokers from inquiring about criminal record information and conducting background checks on prospective tenants at any point in the process.
A fair chance at housing for all: A criminal record shouldn’t disqualify people seeking an apartment
New Yorkers face a severe housing crunch, with just 37 affordable homes for every 100 low-income renters. Not surprisingly, COVID-19 has only magnified this crisis and heightened the need for ample housing. More than 700,000 households in New York are currently behind on rent, according to National Equity Atlas, with just the Emergency Rental Assistance Program and our temporary statewide eviction ban keeping them from losing their homes.
NYC Council, convicts seek background check ban in fight against ex-prisoner homelessness
Eager to turn her life around, Smith, who’s now 59, needed to find a permanent place to stay. That wasn’t easy. For her first six months outside prison, she lived in transitional housing. For the next year and a half, she stayed with relatives. Finding an apartment of her own proved nearly impossible.
Landlords typically perform criminal background checks on their tenants, a practice Smith believes led to her being rejected time and time again, and one that the City Council is now planning to ban under a bill from Brooklyn Councilman Steve Levin. That legislation is expected to get a full Council vote — and pass with Mayor de Blasio’s support — in the coming weeks.
Housing for Everyone Makes Everyone Safer: The City Council Must Ensure a Fair Chance for Housing for All
In response to George Floyd’s killing and demands to reimagine community safety, Governor Cuomo ordered all local governments to create plans to reform and reinvent their police forces. In response, the New York City Council adopted a “Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative Plan.” The plan lays out concrete ways that the city can stop the cycle of poverty and incarceration -- and ways to create safety without relying solely on police.
A key part of the city’s plan: passing legislation to prohibit housing discrimination based on arrest or conviction record.
Finding an Apartment Is Hard Enough — With a Criminal Background It’s Nearly Impossible
For the formerly incarcerated, finding an apartment in New York City is a Sisyphean task. They might ace the interview with an agent and have the cash for the security deposit and first month’s rent, but once their background check comes back with a criminal conviction, it all comes crashing down.
Advocates renew push to end housing discrimination against formerly incarcerated
Activists are calling on the New York City Council to pass legislation to end housing discrimination against people with a criminal record.
Over 80 criminal justice, law and public defender groups are urging the City Council to pass a stalled bill that would ban landlords from doing background checks or inquiring about a person’s arrest or conviction record at any point during the housing application process.