Theme: Housing

• Although designed for emergency situations, shelters often had strict requirements that excluded many individuals. As noted by the participants, a key obstacle was that many shelters would not admit people who were using drugs. This meant some participants had nowhere to go and be safe while using drugs. One participant noted:

You can’t stay at the city mission here if you’re using. They don’t have anywhere that you can say that’s safe as long as you’re using. So, I guess you make a choice. If you’re going to use drugs, you’re not going to have anywhere safe to say.

Another participant described the experience of going to a local shelter. “I knocked on their door desperate because I, too, was probably on drugs, and I wanted to get out of the situation I was in. I was scared. And this was during COVID, and they told me they couldn’t help me.” Other shelters were selective about admitting persons with certain criminal histories. Among those responding to the poll questions, only 24% of the participants said they were denied access to a shelter because of a conviction. One participant described being rejected with their conviction record:

So, I know that this question was not about an emergency shelter; it is probably more designed to be about a housing shelter, but I was told during a hurricane that I could not shelter at the emergency shelter, and that I needed to go home and pray.

• Obtaining a lease in your name when you have a felony conviction record does not appear possible in most locations. Even among participants who have experienced many years of reentry success, most explained that they are unable to get a lease in their own name. This was true even when they qualified for housing assistance. Among those responding to the poll questions, 50% of the participants were told they could not reside or reenter housing because of their conviction. For example, one participant reported, “When the housing voucher does come through, good luck finding somebody who is going to rent to you if you have a felony record.” Another participant explained, “Whether you have Section 8 or not, and guaranteed paid rent, my criminal record a number of times has disqualified me for rents through a private landlord.” Still another participant described that “I was denied moving into these apartments that I thought was the perfect location. It fit my budget. But you . . . had to be off probation for a certain amount of years before you could even live there.” As one participant summed it up:

We’re not going to get housing, so we don’t even attempt to go get housing because we know ain’t anybody going to give us housing because we got felonies. So, we essentially try to go stay somewhere with somebody because that’s the really only option left for us.

• Individuals perceived the requirement for nonrefundable application fees as unfair given the almost certain outcome (denial) because of their felony conviction record. Such a requirement is a particularly inflexible aspect of trying to rent an apartment or house from a management company. As one participant noted:

So, it’s a struggle for sure because you’re denied over and over and over again, and they don’t care about taking the application fees and the background search fees. They’re like, ‘Yep. We know that we’re going to deny you, but we’ll take money anyway,’ and you don’t get it back.

For many, the issue is their criminal record. One participant reported that “I think I’ve racked up almost $400 in application fees, and I’m denied every time because of my conviction.” For others, they believe the issue may be about their credit history. As another participant explained:

And they’re not always going to say, “Well we don’t want you here because you’re a felon.” They’re going to say, “Well, you don’t have established credit.” Where I live now, they want you to make four times your rent on a paycheck in a month. Who’s going to make that? And we don’t need that. But those are the hurdles. But credit, I think, is the number one thing. They just say, you don’t have any credit.

Trying to apply for multiple options at the same time so there is a backup if they get rejected is often not feasible given the cost. As one participant described:

A lot of these places want you to float them 300 bucks or something. 50 of it is for the background check, and then the rest goes somewhere else, and when they deny you, it’s usually a two-week lag time on that. It’s hard to be floating money all over the place, and they ask you the question on the application if you’ve been convicted of a felony.

Renting directly from owners, rather than management companies, may lead to success, but as one participant noted, “I found it was much easier to go to private-owned houses, but then they can charge whatever astronomical amount of rent that they want to charge.”

• Those with a felony conviction record often are prohibited from living with other felons, which, for some, may include family members. As one participant explained:

So, at first, I was going to go to my dad’s . . . but because his wife has a felony on her record from maybe 5 or 10 years ago, I wasn’t able to go there on home confinement. So, I had to live with my stepmom, with my dad’s ex-wife.

Not everyone has options within their own families that meet the requirements. One participant described their parole requirements, “They don’t want you to live with felons. Well, mostly all of my family has been in trouble.” There are real consequences for not abiding by these restrictions. One participant shared, “When I was on parole, I ended up with 90 more days because I wasn’t supposed to have contact with another felon. And no matter what, family or not.” Family can provide a support system or place to live, so restricting access to family members can make it difficult for those returning to the community after incarceration.

• Barriers to housing often mean that individuals who were formerly incarcerated will live in dangerous areas. In finding options for housing that they may qualify for and can afford, many individuals are living in neighborhoods where they do not feel safe. As one participant noted:

Where I was living was not safe. I literally lived in an apartment complex in [the city] where I could hear them selling drugs and shooting right outside the window where I was sleeping on the couch, but I only had to stay there for three months after I got out of the halfway house.

Yet another participant described, “Here, at least in [this state], you really can’t get an apartment anywhere—except for really, really, really bad neighborhoods—if you’re a felon.”

• Differences in the options for temporary housing for women and men often create more unsafe circumstances for women. Participants described an apparent unfairness in practices toward men and women. As one participant described:

[I] have to have some place that I can say I’m going home. When I was in that reentry program, they housed men with Section 8. They sent the women to the shelter. And I don’t think that was fair because we are out here; we’re at risk. We could be beat, raped, and killed at any time. And they housed the men, but they didn’t house us.

Because they often are housed with their children, there are more stringent requirements for women than for men. In one example, we heard that “the men are allowed to stumble in drunk. They’re allowed to use and go in. They don’t treat them the same because there’s not children on their side [of the shelter].”

• Section 8 housing can be a solution, but those with felony conviction records face restrictions. Section 8 is an essential voucher program that provides housing to low-income families and individuals. Many who were formerly incarcerated were denied Section 8 housing and had to find alternative forms of housing. Even when families received Section 8 vouchers, they were still being discriminated against and even denied housing. One participant explained, “before we were incarcerated, we had Section 8 housing. As a result of our convictions, we were banned from the Section 8 waiting list for . . . five years.” This same participant noted that once approved to have the benefits restored, “Section 8 housing has made all of the difference in the world for me.” Yet many others reported that the loss of benefits was permanent. Another participant described:

I had applied for Section 8 a couple of times, and for whatever reason, all these years later, my name never came up. You know, I was never contacted. I think once I got a letter saying that I didn’t qualify but with no explanation.

Still another participant related that “I had Section 8 before I was incarcerated and lost it due to my arrest and, because it’s a felony, I got kicked off of my subsidy housing and was never able to apply again.”