I’m up late (or is it early?) still not feeling good. To help facilitate sleep I’ve been reading Schleiermacher, a German theologian who has put generations of seminarians to sleep through his works. Going through unread e-mails, I noticed one with a note directing me to the Humans Rights Watch web site. Here’s what I found:
(New York, November 18, 2004)—Across the United States, hundreds of thousands of poor people have been denied access to public housing because they have criminal records, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. They have been excluded for often minor and long-ago offenses that have no bearing on public safety, which is the goal of strict admission policies.
Based on research across the country, the 101-page report “No Second Chance” is the first examination of “one strike” policies in public housing. Established to protect housing developments from potentially dangerous tenants, these policies automatically exclude applicants with certain criminal records. Unfortunately, the criteria for exclusion are needlessly overbroad and can exclude certain offenders for life—regardless of evidence of their rehabilitation.
“Everyone deserves safe housing, but these policies yield more misery and desperation than public safety,” said Corinne Carey, researcher for Human Rights Watch's U.S. Program.
Click here to read the full press release.
Let’s hope this report does something to draw attention to this issue. In the 17 years I worked on issues of homelessness this was a problem we faced time and time again. Where do you find housing for people with criminal records? The best solution would be to integrate people back into society with supervision, job training, education, along with efforts to make the ex-offender feel like part of the community. All the public wants to pay for is expensive jails that are far out of their sight. Jails don’t help offenders become better people and they don’t create safer communities.
Maybe we could enact zoning laws in upscale sections of town that make it illegal for anyone with a prior conviction to live there. George W. Bush lives in public housing and he was arrested once for drunk driving. Should he be allowed to live in the White House? Or do different rules apply to different classes and races?
Visit the National Low Income Housing Coalition to learn more about America’s housing crisis.
