DOJ Warns Landlords About Conducting Criminal Background Checks on Would-Be Renters

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CNS News:

(CNSNews.com) - As President Obama commutes the sentences of more and more prisoners, his Justice Department intends to make it harder for landlords to deny affordable housing to ex-convicts.

 

The Justice Department announced on Tuesday that it is involving itself in a legal case in New York brought by a group that helps "formerly incarcerated individuals" find housing.

 

The group complained that a 917-unit complex in Far Rockaway, Queens (N.Y.) had a policy of refusing to rent to individuals with prior convictions for felonies or misdemeanors other than traffic offenses. The plaintiff argues that this policy has an unjustified disparate impact against prospective African-American and Hispanic tenants, in violation of the Fair Housing Act.

 

Although the Fair Housing Act does not forbid housing providers from considering applicants’ criminal records, the DOJ says “categorical prohibitions that do not consider when the conviction occurred, what the underlying conduct entailed, or what the convicted person has done since then run a substantial risk of having a disparate impact based on race or national origin.”