Under draft rules being considered by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, anyone on the sex offender registry or those with drug manufacturing convictions would be permanently barred from state-supported housing. Others with violent felony convictions would be banned for three years, nonviolent felony offenders would be excluded for two years, and Class A misdemeanor offenses would result in a one-year ban.
The possible new rules first reported on by the Houston Chronicle are opposed by fair housing advocates.
“This will have a disastrous impact on potential clients of supporting housing projects,” said Texas Housers staff attorney Elizabeth Roehm in the Chronicle story. “Supportive housing projects are meant to serve very vulnerable populations who may have had contact with the criminal justice system. If instated, it would require the housing providers to screen out potential tenants.”
Houston’s Coalition for the Homeless and New Hope Housing also have strong views.
“First, I’m unclear as to the problem we’re trying to solve here because I’m completely unaware of problems with crime in TDHCA-funded supportive housing properties,” New Hope Housing CEO Joy Horak Brown told the TDHCA board at its Sept. 3 meeting. “What I am aware of is the strong potential for a fair housing violation or a HUD disparate impact violation embedded in an across-the-board screening policy such as the one that’s being proposed.”
TDHCA staffers claim the proposal is based on complaints from residents who feel unsafe.
They just can’t hate enough it seems. How can they not understand this put’s more people at risk if a person doesn’t get proper care, education, therapies etc… These will be the same people that look at the homeless and say they are their because they put themselves there. No…many are there becasue they were legislated into homelessness.
Everyone who is able need to place public comments on the proposal. Comments are only open until Oct. 9. See the original article for the link to place comments.
They create what they hate, they hate what they create. You can’t make progress until the cycle is broken. And if they won’t break it then it’s up to the people.
This isn’t a way to help ex-criminals to re-integrate back into society. The proposal is creating a caste system as economic mobility is stifled.
Surprised there aren’t more comments on the source page. I posted the following:
Unless they buy every house in the neighborhood, current residents have no say whatsoever in who their new neighbors are or may be. All people have the right to reside wherever they want or wherever is within their means. If current residents don’t like ot or “feel safe” they are free to move themselves.
I’ve made that point in various forums more times than I can remember. Starting to feel a little tedious.