Looking Beyond Conviction History: Recommendations for Public Housing Authority Admissions Policies

PHAs that use conviction records to determine For nearly all types of convictions, housing authorities eligibility for housing should set lookback periods exercise their individual discretion to set eligibility criteria.3 at a maximum of three years from the date of Federal policymakers have encouraged PHAs to rethink release from incarceration or the date of conviction, limits on public housing f. [...] The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a agencies, county and state corrections departments, reentry component of the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, service providers, homelessness service providers, continuum of which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National care organizations, resident advocates, and other community Institute of Justice, the Office of Juveni. [...] Department of Justice, Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the authors Bureau of Justice Assistance has funded since 2019, have informed the and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the recommendations in this publication. [...] Ramirez and Edward Golding, Guidance for Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) and Owners of Federally-Assisted Housing 2 These admissions policies affect local public housing on Excluding the Use of Arrest Records in Housing Decisions developments and federal Housing Choice Vouchers, (Washington, DC: U. [...] Summary of Title V, Public Housing and Tenant-Based Assistance,of the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility 9 Terry Gross, “First-Ever Evictions Database Shows: ‘We’re In Act of 1998 (Washington, DC: Office of Policy, Program, the Middle Of A Housing Crisis,’” NPR, April 12, 2018, https:// and Legislative Initiatives and Office of Public and perma.cc/2Q8X-PYGG.