Fair Chance for Housing Coalition cites success of West Harlem’s Castle Gardens in push for city-wide ban on tenant background checks

As New York City’s housing market becomes increasingly competitive, securing affordable housing is more difficult than ever. But for the more than 745,000 New Yorkers with conviction histories, the already daunting task is nearly impossible.

Criminal background checks on prospective tenants remain a routine part of rent applications, and New York City landlords can legally deny applicants with a history of conviction. Due to limited access to affordable housing, release from jail or prison is one of the most common reasons for entering New York City homeless shelters, creating what the Coalition for the Homeless calls the “prison-to-shelter pipeline.” The Fair Chance for Housing Coalition seeks to end housing discrimination against formerly convicted individuals by advocating for City Council Intro 2047, a bill that would prohibit New York City landlords from refusing “rentals, sales, leases, subleases, or occupancy agreements on the basis of arrest record or criminal history.”

The Fortune Society, a non-profit dedicated to successful reentry and alternatives to incarceration and a supporter of the Fair Chance for Housing Coalition, cites its West Harlem service center Castle Gardens as evidence of the feasibility and success of mixed justice-involvement housing communities.

In 2010, Fortune opened Castle Gardens on the corner of 625 West 140th St. with the aim of supporting low-income tenants both with and without a conviction history. The 12-story, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold certified residential building also serves as a Harlem polling location and a food distribution center. The development regularly hosts community activities like school supply giveaways, health fairs, and social events.

“Castle Gardens is more than a housing development; Castle Gardens is a community,” Fortune’s deputy CEO Stanley Richards said. “Castle Gardens was designed to create generational and experiential connections centered on the individual and collective desire to live someplace affordable, safe, and environmentally friendly. The set of diverse tenants—those with histories of incarceration and those with low incomes—have built over time a strong sense of community whereby all tenants work to ensure the safety of every tenant.”

According to Andre Ward, associate vice president of Fortune’s David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy and a formerly-incarcerated New Yorker, Castle Gardens has become a center of service and community. However, the West Harlem community was originally uneasy about formerly-incarcerated tenants joining the community.

“At one time it hadn’t been like that, there was huge concern by the community. But once our [team] built a relationship with them, that [ultimately led] to building a sense of community, and has allowed Castle Gardens and Castle to remain in existence. … People who have a prior history of involvement in the criminal legal system can live in a community, because they are part of the community,” Ward said.

The proposed Fair Chance for Housing Act aims to expand the housing rights of justice-involved New Yorkers beyond the walls of developments like Castle Gardens.

Former District 33 Councilman Stephen Levin originally introduced the bill in August 2020. Despite receiving wide support in the City Council and an endorsement from former Mayor Bill de Blasio, the bill never came to a vote in 2021. Still, Ward explained the bill remains a necessary step in improving rates of successful reentry from jail and prison.

“We know that, fundamentally, housing is one of the most important things a person needs upon release to establish, obviously, their stability,” Ward said. “And we know that when a person has stable housing, that allows them to enter into the world in a different way, to access resources and support, [to] become employed, and ultimately, to live a life of contribution.”

The Rent Stabilization Association and the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums were among the owner-advocacy groups to oppose Intro 2047. In an online publication on Dec. 9, CNYC urged landlords to notify their tenants that “this seriously flawed legislation could result in arsonists, embezzlers—and worse!—becoming your neighbors.” Ward said the characterization of justice-involved people as dangerous is a harmful but common narrative.

“We know there’s a tremendous amount of propaganda that’s put out, misinformation and disinformation that comes from special interest groups who essentially report that having someone who has a history of involvement in the criminal legal system living next to them translates into a dangerous kind of experience with people,” Ward said. “And the data just suggests that that [is] not the case. In fact, it is people who are least likely to have a history of involvement in the criminal legal system that are involved in acts of violence, et cetera, as tenants and neighbors.”

Ward said this “disinformation” and “fear mongering” is one of the greatest challenges facing advocacy for those involved in the criminal justice system. In response, Fortune and other coalition members have launched several projects to combat the dehumanization and misinformation surrounding formerly incarcerated residents, including the “I have a conviction, would you live next to me?” campaign and the “Both Side of the Bars” podcast series..

Despite the legislative challenges, Ward said organizations in the coalition are determined to continue their advocacy for justice-involved housing rights. Ward anticipates that by sharing the narratives of formerly incarcerated tenants, challenging misinformation with research, and continuing coalition building, the Fair Chance for Housing campaign will bring equal housing accessibility to formerly-incarcerated New Yorkers in 2022.

“Housing is a human right. Human beings, regardless of the poor choices that they’ve made in their lives, have the capacity to transform their lives and change. And having safe and stable housing is one of the major things that can support and aid that person’s transformation and change,” Ward said. “So we feel that in 2022, … regardless of opponents and detractors, our advocacy for that will continue to push to ultimately have a legislative win.”