HUD Proposes Rule to Reduce Housing Barriers for People With Criminal Records
Today, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a rule on the Federal Register entitled "Reducing Barriers to HUD-Assisted Housing."
If the rule becomes official, simply having a criminal record would not automatically or categorically deny access to or terminate someone from HUD-assisted housing—including public housing, housing choice vouchers, and HUD multifamily housing.
Instead, public housing agencies (PHAs) and owners of HUD-assisted multifamily housing would be required, when making an admissions decision, to use an individualized assessment that only considers criminal records relevant to endangering health and safety of staff and residents and also would be required to provide full consideration to mitigating factors and circumstances. The proposed rule would continue to afford discretion to PHAs and assisted housing owners while providing direction on adopting and implementing fair, effective, and comprehensive admissions and termination policies.
HUD is seeking public comments until June 10 through regulations.gov or through the methods described in the proposed rule.