50 Years after the Fair Housing Act, the Work is Far from Over
We can and must do better for people in America with arrest and conviction records.
Fifty years ago, just seven days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 — more commonly referred to as the Fair Housing Act.
That law, one of our nation’s most important pieces of civil rights legislation, outlawed discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Two decades later, the law was amended to — among other things — expand coverage to prohibit discrimination based on disability or familial status.
“Now, with this bill, the voice of justice speaks again,” Johnson said when he signed the law 50 years ago. “It proclaims that fair housing for all — all human beings who live in this country — is now a part of the American way of life.”
Unfortunately, it hasn’t been part of the American way of life for everyone. Our nation has a long way to go to realize the promise of the Fair Housing Act, and here’s one group in particular who we’ve failed: the more than 600,000 people who are released from American prisons each year.
Many landlords in America remain unwilling to rent to formerly incarcerated people, even though there is no evidence that an arrest or conviction record impacts their ability to maintain tenancy. An estimated four out of five landlords employ background checks to screen out prospective tenants with arrest or conviction records, and Black applicants have been shown to be more harshly screened than White applicants.
In a 2015 survey of formerly incarcerated people, 79 percent of participants reported that they and their families were ineligible or denied housing because of their own or a love one’s conviction history. One in 10 people also said that family members had been evicted when loved ones returned home from being incarcerated.
Under 2016 nondiscrimination guidance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), landlords are in violation of the Fair Housing Act if they categorically refuse housing to individuals based solely on someone’s conviction history. They are, however, still permitted to refuse housing to people with convictions for the illegal manufacture or distribution of drugs and whenever “necessary to achieve a substantial, legitimate, nondiscriminatory interest,” such as resident safety. These limitations are arbitrary and likely discriminatory in impact.
And let’s be clear: Access to fair housing opportunities is vitally necessary for people re-entering society, but its impact goes far beyond the individual. As the National Fair Housing Alliance puts it:
“Fair housing is not just an important tool for eliminating discrimination; it also helps to strengthen families, communities, businesses, and our overall economy. Fulfillment of the letter and spirit of the law means that every community can be a place of opportunity where people can live in diverse, inclusive, accessible neighborhoods with quality schools, healthy foods, meaningful jobs, health care, green spaces, quality credit, and the other opportunities that frame and affect our lives.”
Unfortunately, 50 years after the enactment of the Fair Housing Act, the work is far from over. Too many formerly incarcerated people continue to struggle to find housing when returning to their communities. The current Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Ben Carson, is scaling back fair housing enforcement. And the Senate — as recently as this year — has considered and passed legislation that would undermine the Fair Housing Act and other consumer protections passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. We can and must do better.
In recent years, cities like San Francisco, New York, and Washington, D.C. have passed local ordinances prohibiting housing discrimination on the basis of arrest or conviction history. It’s time to do right by those who fought for the Fair Housing Act by banning this form of discrimination across the entire country.
This post is the second in a series of four stories published in commemoration of Second Chance Month. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a Second Chance Month partner and believes that together we can unlock brighter futures for the 65 million people in America who have repaid their debt to society.
