TESTIMONY OF THE FORTUNE SOCIETY TO THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HOUSING OF THE NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL

(DECEMBER 8, 2022) Andre Ward, Associate Vice President of the David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy, presented the following testimony on the subject of Fair Chance for Housing to the Committee on Public Housing of the New York City Council:

Good afternoon, Council Committee Chair Williams and Members of the Committee, and Council Member Powers:

My name is Andre Ward. I am the Associate Vice President of The David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy at the Fortune Society. The Fortune Society is a 55-year-old organization that supports successful reentry from incarceration and promotes alternatives to incarceration, thus strengthening the fabric of our communities. We do this by believing in the power of people to change; building lives through service programs shaped by the experiences of our participants; and changing minds through education and advocacy to promote the creation of a fair, humane, and truly rehabilitative justice system.

I would first like to draw your attention to one very important video linked in my written testimony. The video is titled Why We Need Fair Chance for Housing for Justice Involved Individuals. Neighbors describe feeling no less safe while living in a building with someone who had been incarcerated.  A landlord extends his gratitude to his tenants who were previously incarcerated, “for when [people with criminal legal system involvement] have a place, they cherish it, they take care of it, and they really become an example for the building and an example for all tenants”.[1] Everyone is deserving of a safe place to live and housing providers should not define people by their legal system involvement.

At the Fortune Society, one of the first things that more than a quarter of our new clients say to us is that they are homeless or unstably housed. This is a constant plea from the individuals walking through our doors. Many times, participants meet all of the requirements to have a housing application accepted; however, in far too many instances, acquiring a place to call home is an uphill battle because of their past criminal legal system involvement. Occurrences like these were the driving force behind the development of the Fortune Society’s Castle Gardens apartment building, a mixed-use affordable and supportive housing development in West Harlem. Approximately 90,000 square feet of residential space is composed of 113 units; 50 supportive apartments for homeless individuals with a history of criminal legal system involvement, 13 supportive family apartments for homeless families with at least one member who is formerly incarcerated, and 50 affordableapartments  for the greater community.[2] Castle Gardens residents have lived next door to each other and in the community safely for 12 years.

Next door to Castle Gardens is the Fortune Academy (also known as The Castle), which provides emergency short-term and longer-term supportive housing to homeless formerly incarcerated people.[3]  The same community that had initially expressed opposition to development of the Castle actually embraced the concept of Castle Gardens, because Castle residents were seen as good neighbors.[4]  Community groups now use our space for meetings and neighbors bring their children to our block party and Haunted House events.

It is important to consider this bill in the following context: there is an ongoing housing crisis in New York City that is only getting worse.[5] It is well-documented that people with criminal legal system histories face barriers to obtaining housing.[6] The number of New Yorkers living in city shelters on a nightly basis has grown by more than 30% since the beginning of 2022 to nearly 65,000 residents with 15,000 to 20,000 of those people caught in the cycle of homelessness and incarceration.[7] Housing discrimination based on an individual’s conviction record perpetuates homelessness, and undermines families’ opportunity for mobility and success across generations. When an individual is denied an apartment, often a whole family is denied a home. Advocates are committed to setting up New Yorkers to heal and move forward with their lives, but cannot achieve this goal without the City ending this harmful form of discrimination.

In addition to being a family justice issue, access to housing is a racial justice issue.  The federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 (FHA),[8] which was enacted to end racial discrimination in housing, has been interpreted by the federal government to also prohibit housing providers from enacting blanket bans against people with convictions, since they are disproportionately Black and brown.[9]  Yet this form of discrimination is alive and well in New York City. In fact, Fortune recently brought a federal lawsuit against a marketing agent for affordable housing for uniformly screening out applicants with conviction histories, in clear violation of NYC Housing Preservation & Development policies, and in violation of the FHA.[10]  This practice is alleged to have produced a severe disparate impact on Black and brown applicants.[11]

Importantly, in addition to recognizing the racial disparities caused by the use of criminal background checks, the federal government has also recognized and recently stated that private landlord use of criminal background checks is simply not logical.[12] The ideology that running a criminal background check on a person is an accurate way to evaluate their character is untrue, in fact, private background checks from third-party businesses are unregulated and can be wildly inaccurate. The reporting of inaccurate negative information contributes to difficulty finding housing, and result in people living farther from reentry programs and services, paying more in rent and fees, and undermining household financial stability.[13] Truly, there is no independent or publicly available evidence that tenant screening reports are either reliably predictive of future rental behavior or otherwise reduce risks and costs to landlords.[14] Landlords often do background checks under the guise of “safety,” but research shows that denying people stable housing can escalate risk of crime. For example, several studies suggest that an increased risk of recidivism among those on parole is linked to residential instability.[15] Studies also found that an increased chance of re-arrest among individuals who have been incarcerated in the past and those who are on parole is linked to homelessness.[16] Qualitative research emphasizes this point further; people returning from prison view stable housing as one of the key components of recidivism prevention.[17] Similarly, New Yorkers view access to stable housing as critical to public safety.[18]

For all of these reasons, the Fortune Society has been a staunch supporter of the Fair Chance for Housing Act. We also trust that this Committee and the broader City Council will monitor the implementation of the bill should it become law to ensure that people benefit from its passage.

We thank Council Member Powers for introducing and championing this important bill, and you, Chair Williams for your support of it and for holding this hearing.

[1] The Fortune Society. (2022, August 9). “Why We Need Fair Chance for Housing for Justice Involved Individuals”. YouTube. Retrieved November 16, 2022 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFo8zkIwZfs&t=1s; The Fortune Society. (2022, August 29). “Incarceration Should Not Define Us”. YouTube. Retrieved November 16, 2022 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVWleIuGNMo.

[2] Nagrecha, M., & Page, J. (n.d.). “How The Fortune Society Achieved a Triple Bottom Line with Castle Gardens”. Retrieved November 11, 2022 from https://fortunesociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Castle-Gardens.pdf.

[3] Id.

[4] The Fortune Society, The Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. (n.d.). “In Our Backyard: Overcoming Community Resistance to Reentry Housing (A NIMBY Toolkit)”. Retrieved from https://fortunesociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Community.pdf.

[5] (2018, November 29) “NYC For All: The Housing We Need.” New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/nyc-for-all-the-housing-we-need/.

[6] Frances, C. (2022, June 27). “HUD launches agency-wide effort to reduce housing barriers for people with criminal records”. Retrieved November 28, 2022, from https://csgjusticecenter.org/2022/06/27/hud-launches-agency-wide-effort-to-reduce-housing-barriers-for-people-with-criminal-records-2/.

[7] Davis-Merchant, T. (2022, October 20). “Three immediate steps to curb NYC homelessness”. New York Daily News. Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-three-immediate-steps-curb-nyc-homelessness-20221020-bzyf3uyrvnd3tk3rrjpy2fd3mu-story.html.

[8] 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601-3619, 3631.

[9] U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of General Counsel Guidance on Application of Fair Housing Act Standards to the Use of Criminal Records by Providers of Housing and Real Estate-Related Transactions     (Apr. 4, 2016), https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/hud_ogcguidappfhastandcr.pdf.

[10] Rayman, G. (2022, October 31). “NYC-Approved Company Caught Immediately Rejecting Low-Income Housing Applicants for Having Criminal Records: Lawsuit.”  N.Y. Daily News.  https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-lawsuit-nyc-housing-discrimination-criminal-records-20221031-larr3sy6afdjtjnno6yplyseni-story.html.   This is the second such lawsuit Fortune has initiated, as the problem has not abated.  In 2014, Fortune brought a federal lawsuit under the federal Fair Housing Act based on what appeared to be a blanket ban against formerly incarcerated people. In 2019,the case was settled for nearly $1.2 million in one of the largest settlements to date in a case alleging a blanket ban on renting to people with conviction records. The Fortune Society vs. Sandcastle Towers Housing Development Fund, (E.D.N.Y. 2015) (No. 1:14-cv-6410), https://www.relmanlaw.com/cases-fortune (includes Amended Complaint, Memorandum and Understanding, and summary of the case); Mireya Navarro, Lawsuit Says Rental Complex in Queens Excludes Ex-Offenders, N.Y. Times (Oct. 30, 2014), https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/nyregion/lawsuit-says-rental-complex-in-queens-excludes-ex-offenders.html?_r=0

[11] The Fortune Society vs. iAfford, (E.D.N.Y. 2022), (No. 1:22-cv-06584).  https://www.relmanlaw.com/media/cases/1353_iAfford%20-%20filed%20and%20stamped%20complaint.pdf (includes Complaint).

[12] (2022, November 15). “CFPB reports highlight problems with tenant background checks”. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Retrieved November 16, 2022 from https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-reports-highlight-problems-with-tenant-background-checks/

[13] (2022, November 15). “CFPB reports highlight problems with tenant background checks”. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Retrieved November 17, 2022 from https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-reports-highlight-problems-with-tenant-background-checks/

[14] Id.

[15] Steiner, B., Makarios, MD., & Travis, L. (2015). “Examining the effects of residential situations and residential mobility on offender recidivism”. Crime & Delinquency, 61(3), 375–401. 10.1177/0011128711399409.

[16] Clark, V. (2016). “Predicting two types of recidivism among newly released prisoners: First addresses as “launch pads” for recidivism or reentry success”. Crime & Delinquency, 62(10), 1364–1400. 10.1177/0011128714555760.

[17] Jacobs, LA. & Gottlieb, A. (2020 September).” THE EFFECT OF HOUSING CIRCUMSTANCES ON RECIDIVISM: Evidence from a Sample of People on Probation in San Francisco”. Crim Justice Behav. 47(9):1097-1115. doi: 10.1177/0093854820942285.

[18] NYC Housing Preservation & Development. (2022, November 14). ”Helping New Yorkers access high-quality housing more quickly”. The official website of the City of New York. Retrieved November 23, 2022, from https://www.nyc.gov/site/hpd/news/054-22/mayor-adams-takes-major-steps-help-new-yorkers-access-high-quality-housing-more-quickly-move.