The White House released on April 28 the “White House Alternatives, Rehabilitation, and Reentry Strategic Plan,” a multi-year strategy to improve rehabilitation efforts in carceral settings and support successful reentry for people exiting incarceration.
The plan coordinates reentry efforts across federal agencies, with the goal of expanding access to resources essential to successful reentry, including “secure access to safe and affordable housing,” as well as healthcare, food assistance, and educational and employment opportunities. Among other projects, the plan highlights HUD’s initiative to address unsheltered homelessness (see Memo, 6/27/22); efforts by the White House Domestic Policy Council (DPC) and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) to encourage communities to de-criminalize homelessness and instead adopt a Housing First approach; and forthcoming updates to HUD regulations and guidance to ensure people with conviction and arrest histories are fairly, individually, and holistically screened for housing.
An estimated one in three Americans has some type of criminal record, including convictions for minor offenses and arrests that never resulted in conviction. Bias inherent in the criminal-legal system has caused people of color – and particularly Black, Latino, and Native people – as well as people with disabilities and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, to be disproportionately represented in the criminal-legal system.
Formerly incarcerated and convicted people face a myriad of barriers to successful reentry, including accessing affordable housing. Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) and owners of federally assisted housing have broad discretion when it comes to screening out applicants with records or precluding returning citizens from rejoining their families. In the absence of affordable housing, people impacted by the criminal-legal system are at a significantly greater risk of housing instability, homelessness, and ultimately recidivism.
HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge announced in April 2022 that her department would undergo a review of existing programs and policies to identify barriers to housing access for people with conviction and arrest records (see Memo, 4/18/22). On April 24, HUD released an outline of its “Action Plan to Remove Unnecessary Barriers to Housing for People with Criminal Records,” which includes best practices for tenant screening, such as:
- Preventing blanket denials on applicants with conviction records.
- Not screening for convictions or other records that are unlikely to impact an individual’s ability to be a good tenant, such as arrest records, sealed or expunged records, older convictions, and convictions not involving harm to persons or property.
- Using individualized assessments for evaluating candidates that consider factors like employment, engagement in drug or alcohol treatment, and the totality of circumstances surrounding a conviction.
- Providing applicants the opportunity to offer mitigating evidence before an admissions decision is made.
HUD is expected to release updated guidance and technical assistance for PHAs and project owners in the coming months. In anticipation of the guidance, HUD released on May 5 “Homecoming: Life After Incarceration,” a multimedia project highlighting the challenges faced by people with conviction histories in finding housing and undertaking successful reentry. The project showcases the voices and experiences of people with conviction histories, as well as examples of organizations leading the way in successful reentry.
Read the “White House Alternatives, Rehabilitation, and Reentry Strategic Plan” here, and view the factsheet here.
See HUD’s “Homecoming: Life After Incarceration” here.