HUD Prohibits Use of Arrest Records for Admissions
Good news for citizens working on reentry. HUD will no longer consider arrest records as grounds for denying admission to assisted housing! This action was prompted by the White House initiative on reintegration and is like the Ohio State legislature’s efforts to“ban-the-box” on State employment applications. The information below comes directly from HUD. (The bolding was added.)
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HUD released Notice PIH 2015-19 yesterday. The subject of the notice is “Guidance for Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) and Owners of Federally-Assisted Housing on Excluding the Use of Arrest Records in Housing Decisions”. This notice is the one we indicated was anticipated at our last meeting and voted to draft a letter of support for. The notice prohibits use of arrest records as grounds for denying admission to assisted housing (i.e. public housing and subsidized housing) and assisted housing programs (HCVP) and provides examples of best practices for housing providers in establishing reasonable admissions/eligibility criteria. The notice does not provide specific timelines for offenses or set maximum look back periods.
You can read the notice by clicking the link below:
http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=PIH2015-19.pdf
This notice was released as one element of The White House’s “New Actions to Promote Rehabilitation and Reintegration for the Formerly-Incarcerated”. The press release on this initiative is available online at:
We will spend some time at our Housing Advocacy Subcommittee meeting next Tuesday (11/10/15 at 9:30am at NorthStar) and the full Reentry Housing Committee meeting on Nov. 24th at 9:30am at NorthStar. We hope to see you there!