President Expands Second Chance Opportunities for Formerly Incarcerated Persons
The Biden Administration proclaimed April as Second Chance Month, asserting “the importance of helping people who were formerly incarcerated reenter society.”
Every year, over 640,000 people are released from state and federal prisons and more than 70 million Americans have a criminal record that creates significant barriers to employment, economic stability, and successful reentry into society. Thousands of legal and regulatory restrictions prevent these individuals from accessing employment, housing, voting, education, business licensing, and other basic opportunities. Due to these barriers, nearly 75 percent of people who were formerly incarcerated are still unemployed a year after being released.
Designating April as Second Chance Month aligns the administration’s efforts to address housing discrimination with efforts to remove barriers to safe and affordable housing for returning citizens. The president acknowledged that overcoming these challenges to housing is important not only for returning citizens, but also for their families, and their communities. “By supporting people who are committed to rectifying their mistakes, redefining themselves, and making meaningful contributions to society, we help reduce recidivism and build safer communities,” said President Biden in his declaration.
The Biden Administration also announced new steps this week to support those re-entering society after incarceration. These actions include:
- A new collaboration between the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Labor to provide job training and new grants for workforce development programs.
- Greater opportunities to serve in federal government, and expanded access to capital for people with convictions trying to start a small business.
- Improved reentry services for veterans, and more support for health care, housing, and educational opportunities.
HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge also directed her principal leadership earlier this month to conduct a comprehensive review of HUD regulations, guidance, and policy documents that mention the use of criminal records in tenant screening, selection, and tenancy decisions. The review will propose changes to language to help housing providers avoid the overly broad use of criminal records in denying or excluding people from HUD-assisted housing and make appropriate changes based on those recommendations and review of federal statutes. The Department of Justice also convened the Reentry Coordination Council last fall, in collaboration with HUD and the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, and Labor, to help make communities safer and stronger by reducing crime, recidivism, mass incarceration, and elements of the justice system that foster harmful disparate impacts on people of color and other historically disadvantaged communities.
To read President Biden’s proclamation on Second Chance Month, click here. To view a fact sheet on the Administration’s efforts to expand second chance opportunities for formerly incarcerated persons, click here.
House Bill Would Prevent Treasury Redistribution of Unspent Rental Assistance Funds
Representative French Hill (R-AR), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, recently introduced legislation known as the Protecting Rural Renters Act (H.R. 7327), to stop the Treasury Department’s efforts to redistribute millions of unspent federal dollars, which are aimed at helping tenants who are dealing with financial hardship due to COVID-19, from rural to urban areas. Rep. Hill stated that the Department of the Treasury’s recovery of pandemic rent relief funds comes at the expense of renters in less populous areas. The Protecting Rural Renters Act would require the Treasury Department to stop taking back federal rent relief funds that would help rural tenants, and return the funds it has already taken back, including nearly $9 million from Arkansas. “This reallocation of funds will disproportionately affect rural America,” Hill stated on the House floor earlier this month. “This is unfair and turns a blind eye to the needs of renters who have not received rental assistance simply because they live in rural areas of our country.” Rep. Hill stated that he has not spoken with the Treasury Department or the Biden administration recently, but that he is not the only member of Congress to have expressed concerns about their handling of rent relief, and that the federal government should have given states the freedom to measure their individual needs while distributing rent relief. The Protecting Rural Renters Act has been referred to the House Financial Services Committee.
To read the full bill text, click here.
Bipartisan Bill Introduced to Remove Lead from Assisted Housing
Last week, Representative Dan Kildee (D-MI), Chief Deputy Whip of the House Democratic Caucus, introduced new bipartisan legislation to protect families from lead in drinking water. The Get the Lead out of Assisted Housing Act (H.R. 7516) would help protect families living in federally assisted housing from lead exposure by requiring HUD to inspect for lead service lines, create a grant program for local and state governments to address lead contamination, and mandate that homes found to have lead paint be checked for lead in water. The Get the Lead out of Assisted Housing Act would help protect families from lead exposure by:
- Directing the Secretary of HUD to update the Uniform Physical Condition Standards (UPCS) to include inspecting for lead in service lines and lead in plumbing.
- Creating a Healthy Homes Lead in Drinking Water Grant pilot program to provide grants to states and local governments responsible for developing consolidated plans for community development. These funds would be used to identify the threats posed by lead in drinking water and take steps to protect residents. Activities under this grant program include creating a lead service line inventory, testing for lead in the drinking water at childcare centers and schools, testing for lead at public facilities like public water fountains and remediation.
- Including testing, notification and controlling for lead in drinking water when providing grants for the lead-based paint hazard reduction program. This will ensure that when a home that contains lead-based paint is being remediated, that lead in the drinking water can also be addressed if a threat exists in the same home.
- Ensuring HUD has the authority it needs to address lead contamination from water, air or industrial sources in consultation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Rep. Kildee introduced this legislation along with Representatives Jackie Walorski (R-IN), Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), Donald Payne, Jr (D-NJ) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and the bill has been referred to the House Financial Services Committee. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) introduced a companion bill (S. 4047) in the Senate with Senator Todd Young (R-IN) and that bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. NAHMA will continue to monitor this legislation as it moves through Congress.
To read the full bill text, click here.