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NYCHA Considers Changes To Offer Prospective Tenants With Criminal Records "Fair Treatment"
By
Mirela Iverac
Published Sep 23, 2020
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By
Mirela Iverac
Published Sep 23, 2020
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The New York City Housing Authority, the largest landlord in the city, is proposing changes in the way it treats people with criminal records who want to move into public housing.
Currently, individuals with certain criminal convictions have to wait as long as six years after serving their sentences to become eligible to rent an apartment or live with family members who are already there. In the future, the Housing Authority says it wants to conduct an individual review of every application instead of using blanket bans.
“NYCHA is reevaluating its criminal justice policies in a way that ensures stable housing while maintaining safe communities,” Rochel Leah Goldblatt, a spokeswoman for the authority, said in a statement. “These changes look to balance the safety of our residents with fair treatment for residents with justice histories.”
Listen to Mirela Iverac's report on WNYC:
Those with misdemeanor convictions must now wait three to four years after their sentence before being eligible, while those with felony convictions have a five to six year waiting period. Federal law denies eligibility for people who have been convicted of production of methamphetamines in public housing and people who are on the lifetime registry for sex offenses.
The city said the review of applicants with criminal records will include “evidence of rehabilitation,” in addition to interviews with the person and their family. Public comments on the proposal (which can be emailed to NYCHA) are being accepted until mid-October.
Howard Husock, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, said NYCHA, like other institutions, is looking for ways to make it easier for people to re-enter society after having been incarcerated.
“Looking at people as individuals strikes me as a prudent approach,” he said. “For those who truly want to start over, I think, there's increased consciousness there have been barriers.”
The changes are likely to have a limited impact. Last year, only around 200 people were rejected because of their criminal histories. (About 167,000 families—365,806 authorized residents—currently live in NYCHA public housing, including Section 8 residents living in former state- and city-funded developments.) And it’s estimated a few hundred thousand people aren’t officially on leases. They have little incentive to apply to become official tenants, as rent is based on household size.
Fritz Umbach, an associate professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the NYCHA proposal will probably affect only a small fraction of people returning from prison.
“My impression is that NYCHA would like to do the right thing,” he said. “But this is a sideshow of a sideshow. This is not the problem of reentry in New York City or in the U.S. more broadly.”
He said individual reviews make sense, but that it’s necessary to be cautious. Shootings and murders have increased significantly across the city over the past few months. But while citywide crime decreased over the last nine years by 11.5%, Umbach said it increased by 21.2% in public housing.
“We jeopardize the safety of the poorest among us when we start changing the admission process into public housing,” he said.
Last month, Councilman Stephen Levin introduced Fair Chance for Housing Act, which would ban background checks and make it illegal to deny a person housing because of their conviction history. It wouldn’t apply to NYCHA because it receives federal funding, but Levin said the Authority’s efforts were “great.”
“When people get out of prison, they've paid their debt to society and they're, for the vast majority, free and clear to begin their life again,” he said.
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Mirela Iverac
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