Testimony of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander to the Committee on Civil and Human Rights  on Fair Chance for Housing

Good morning and thank you to Chair Williams and members of the Committee on Civil and Human Rights for the opportunity to testify at today’s hearing on the Fair Chance for Housing Act.  

My support for this bill goes back to my days in the City Council, and, as Comptroller, I was proud to join Majority Leader Powers to reintroduce this important legislation. The Comptroller’s office works to build a more just and equitable city for all New Yorkers – including those with a history of incarceration. In 2015, I was proud to be a champion of the City’s “Ban the Box” legislation, which prohibited discrimination against job applicants by inquiring about criminal record. Just as we banned the box for people’s economic livelihood, it’s time to end the same form of discrimination in our housing market.   

The Fair Chance for Housing Act gets to the core of the intersection of housing and racial justice. New York City has already been facing a decades-long housing crisis, which was only exacerbated by the pandemic along racial lines. The shortage of affordable housing remains one of the most significant challenges to a durable and inclusive recovery.  

Prior to the pandemic and the subsequent eviction moratorium, thousands of New Yorkers were facing eviction in Housing Court. Following the expiration of the moratorium, and despite the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, there were nearly 600,000 households across New York State with pending eviction cases, as of January 10, 2022. With the expiration of the moratorium, and the inadequate provision of rental assistance, the number of evictions is skyrocketing. Evictions are predominantly located in communities of color, which were also the most severely impacted by COVID-19. Although low-income tenants are entitled to a free attorney under the Right to Counsel law, many tenants are not receiving legal counsel.    

At the same time, homelessness continues to rise with vulnerable residents struggling to exit the shelter system. Those residents are faced with outdated and bureaucratic processes for vouchers – which comes with its own form of source of income discrimination – and are then caught with the challenge of finding a suitable and affordable apartment in an extremely limited market. Landlords frequently use conviction records to determine a tenant’s eligibility for their unit, leaving those with justice involvement trying to stabilize their lives stuck in a cycle of housing insecurity.   

The average New Yorker already faces significant barriers in finding decent housing. Rent stabilized units are being held off the market, and those living in market-rate housing face growing rent burdens. The median rent is nearing $4,000 a month in Manhattan, and the most recent Housing and Vacancy Survey showed very few available units available under $1,500. Involvement with the criminal legal system should not serve as an additional barrier to safe, affordable, and high-quality housing.  

The racial legacy of mass incarceration and housing insecurity cannot be separated. Black people make up about half the people in Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) custody and 56% of heads of household in city shelters, despite being only a quarter of the New York City population. Last year, 40% of people returning to New York City from prison were released to a shelter. This prison-to-shelter pipeline adds fuel to the fire of our housing crisis, due to increased quality-of-life policing unnecessarily funneling formerly incarcerated people back through the criminal legal system, creating a revolving door of incarceration and release.  

If we are committed to reducing recidivism, allowing justice-involved persons to transition back into civil society and return to their communities should be a priority. Barriers to re-entry in the form of housing discrimination further perpetuates a cycle of racial inequity while exacerbating the crisis of mass incarceration. With a city jail population that has swollen to 5,940 and a public safety model that has boasted ever increasing arrest rates, more and more New Yorkers are at risk of a criminal record, reducing their ability to secure decent housing. In New York City, nearly 750,000 people have a conviction record, which would give The Fair Chance for Housing Act an immediate impact for 11% of the adult population. 

We must be committed to building a more inclusive city where everybody has equal right to a roof over their head. To achieve that goal, we need policy that promotes justice, not perpetual punishment. The Fair Chance for Housing Act would be a step in the direction of equity not exclusion.  

Thank you again for the opportunity to submit testimony. 

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