by Katie DePalma, PBI Sheehan Scholar
Housing instability presents a significant barrier for returning citizens, affecting their ability to reintegrate and contribute to society. To combat this challenge, the Vera Institute of Justice’s Opening Doors initiative focuses on expanding access to safe and affordable housing for returning citizens.
By partnering with various stakeholders, including public housing authorities and state legislatures, with support from pro bono lawyers, Opening Doors works to dismantle the barriers that prevent individuals with conviction histories from accessing stable and affordable housing. Vera’s strategic approach enhances opportunities for economic stability and social integration for people with conviction histories.
Navigating Housing Barriers and State Policies for Returning Citizens
People with conviction histories experience significant housing instability that varies based on the laws and policies in specific states. Some states have implemented legislation and policies to expand housing access, including by preventing housing denials based on conviction history and expanding housing vouchers for returning citizens. Other states provide no legislative or policy guidelines for housing access for returning citizens, giving housing providers substantial discretion and increasing the risk of housing discrimination.
Housing discrimination, including denial of housing based on criminal history, creates additional burdens that hinder successful reentry. This punitive practice exacerbates housing insecurity for returning citizens, who are ten times more likely to be unhoused than the general public, with Black people and people of color facing even greater disparities. Returning citizens experiencing housing instability are more likely to come into contact with police and are 11 times more likely to be arrested than those with stable housing, thus contributing to a cycle of homelessness and incarceration.
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, successful reentry requires supports and interventions to address health needs (including physical, behavioral, and mental health), employment and skills development, and
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Similar to the Vera Institute’s work with multiple stakeholders to improve access to housing for returning citizens, Pro Bono Institute’s Minnesota Collaborative Justice Project is a joint effort among more than 25 diverse organizations (including corporations, law firms, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and formerly incarcerated individuals) to collectively address the needs of returning citizens. Read more about the Minnesota Collaborative Justice Project’s work on reentry planning, access to employment, housing, and legal services, and policy and advocacy work here. |
housing stability (including supportive housing services). Returning citizens are more likely to successfully reenter society when they have stable housing, services that address their healthcare needs, and support for employment and skill-building programs. Ensuring access to affordable housing post incarceration reduces recidivism.
Vera Opens Doors
Vera, founded in 1961, is a national organization focused on ending mass incarceration. Run by advocates, researchers, and activists, Vera collaborates with experts and policymakers, with support from pro bono lawyers, to ensure fair treatment within the criminal justice and immigration systems. Vera strives for change by collaborating with impacted communities and government leaders. Reaching antiracist solutions to society’s inequities is at the core of Vera’s vision of safe, healthy, and empowered communities.
As part of its work, Vera focuses on access to housing as a critical element of ending injustice in the criminal justice system. Opening Doors, Vera’s housing initiative, specifically combats housing discrimination by removing barriers to housing for returning citizens.
Since 2017, Vera has partnered with 22 public housing authorities across 12 states, along with advocates, homeless service providers, and other stakeholders, to eliminate public housing barriers for returning citizens. While Vera’s efforts differ by state, they have issued several key policy recommendations for public housing authorities, including:
- reducing the consideration period for conviction histories to three years or less, compared to the average period of seven years;
- limiting the screening of public housing applicants to specific, more serious convictions, and prohibiting the consideration of arrests that do not result in a conviction;
- eliminating one-strike policies that remove individuals from housing due to suspected drug use or criminal activity, and instead requiring a case-by-case evaluation; and
- permitting individuals on parole or probation to reside in public housing.
More recently, Vera has shifted from working with individual public housing authorities to legislative advocacy efforts and technical assistance to state housing finance agencies. To date, Vera is currently working in the following states:
- Maryland: Vera is providing technical assistance to the Department of Housing and Community Development to increase access to housing for people with conviction histories.
- Minnesota and Michigan: Vera is collaborating with community organizations to advance policies in Minnesota and Michigan that limit housing discrimination based solely on conviction histories. If passed, the new rules would restrict background checks to certain types of convictions and within specific time periods, which helps prevent discrimination against individuals with criminal records.
- Oklahoma: Vera is working with community partners to increase access and opportunity to safe and affordable housing statewide.
Vera’s current efforts seek to enact policies that limit landlord discretion in tenant screening and prevent housing discrimination. Vera helps states consider policies that ensure everyone — regardless of their past — has a right to housing.
Pro Bono Lawyers Join Vera to Tackle Housing Discrimination
Vera – with support from pro bono lawyers at Hogan Lovells, a Pro Bono Institute Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® signatory – published Opening Doors to Affordable Housing: The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program and People with Conviction Histories in April 2023. The Report details housing obstacles faced by returning citizens, provides a 50-state survey on housing access for state funded affordable housing projects, and highlights state-level actions to enhance housing stability.
The Report specifically addresses how affordable housing funded by the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, a federal program supporting the development and rehabilitation of affordable rental housing administered by state housing finance agencies, impacts returning citizens across the country. The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, regulated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, provides housing developers federal tax credits to offset the costs of building affordable housing on the condition that they reserve a portion of the housing for lower-income households. In practice, from 1987 to 2022, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program supported 53,032 projects and developed 3.65 million housing units.
At the federal level, the only regulations that exist for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program regarding returning citizens relate to tenant income requirements: there are no additional requirements for how Low-Income Housing Tax Credit funded properties should screen potential tenants. State housing finance agencies manage the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program at the state level, establishing application requirements, criteria, and priorities through qualified allocation plans, which outline how a state or local agency will distribute and allocate federal tax credits for affordable housing. Developers that are awarded the tax credits have significant discretion regarding tenant screening for their properties, increasing the risk of housing discrimination for returning citizens.
Vera’s Opening Doors to Affordable Housing Report details the rules and regulations of state housing finance agencies for Low-Income Housing Tax Credit funded properties. Their comprehensive 50-state survey reveals disparities in how different state housing finance agencies approach tenant screening. Some states lack explicit guidelines within their qualified allocation plans and other policy documents regarding the use of criminal background checks in housing decisions, while others have policies that expressly allow housing denials based on conviction histories. Other states have policies designed to improve housing access for individuals with conviction records, including limiting background checks to specific circumstances.
The policies outlined in Vera’s Report showcase a range of possibilities for enhancing housing access for returning citizens, serving as a starting point for re-evaluating existing barriers within specific states. Vera recommends an inclusive approach, where state housing finance agencies provide explicit rules and regulations within their state’s qualified allocation plan. These guidelines must address using background checks for prospective tenants and specific types of convictions warranting a denial by a landlord. Vera specifically recommends states adopt rules and regulations supporting the inclusion of returning citizens in their properties.
As more state agencies adopt inclusive policies and expand access to affordable housing for returning citizens, housing insecurity for this vulnerable group will diminish.
Takeaways
The research spearheaded by Vera and supported by pro bono lawyers from Hogan Lovells is pivotal to dismantling barriers to affordable housing faced by returning citizens. By combining resources and knowledge from various sectors, initiatives such as Opening Doors not only enhance housing access for returning citizens but also foster a more equitable society. This collaborative approach exemplifies how pro bono work can drive meaningful change, supporting successful reintegration and reducing recidivism. Looking ahead, pro bono lawyers may have additional opportunities to support the Vera Institute’s work to ensure fair treatment within the criminal justice and immigration systems.