ANN ARBOR, MI — Despite pushback from some landlords, Ann Arbor is banning criminal background checks of renters, with few exceptions.
City Council voted unanimously this week to give final approval to the city’s new Fair Chance Access to Housing ordinance in hopes of ending housing discrimination against people with criminal backgrounds and helping formerly incarcerated residents return to society and lead productive lives.
“I’m delighted that we’re going to be moving forward on this,” Mayor Christopher Taylor said, calling it an area of discrimination that has real-life consequences.
“By banning the box with respect to leases, we will be expanding housing opportunities and the opportunities for returning community members to integrate fully back into our community, and that is a social good and I’m proud we’re doing it.”
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Council Member Lisa Disch, D-1st Ward, cited research showing people who’ve been incarcerated once are seven times more likely to experience homelessness.
“That is not only a dangerous and precarious way to live, but it does make it really difficult to get a job and reenter society,” she said. “So, I think we’re doing a good thing here.”
City officials have heard complaints from several landlords who argue the ordinance is taking away a tool they use to screen out housing applicants and keep their communities safe from dangerous criminals.
“There’s some people that when they are released from prison they can move on into society, and there’s other ones that still struggle with that,” Charlie Foster, a longtime Ann Arbor landlord, told City Council last month. “And I think as landlords we should have that right to have more checks put in the system than what you guys are offering us.”
Council Member Travis Radina, D-3rd Ward, said he’s grateful for the support for the ordinance from other community members.
“I am incredibly enthusiastic about this,” he said, arguing many people in the community will benefit from it.
The city also needs to continue working toward expanding affordable housing, he said.
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The new ordinance makes it illegal for landlords to inquire in any way about a housing applicant’s criminal history or require disclosure of criminal history, or to deny someone housing if such information is received.
Violators can face penalty fines up to $500 for each day a violation occurs, plus other possible enforcement action.
The ordinance makes exceptions for landlords required in some cases to take a person’s criminal history into account.
That includes landlords who receive federal funding or accept tenants with federally subsidized housing vouchers.
The ordinance states it will not be a violation for a landlord to comply with federal or state laws that require them to exclude tenants based on certain types of criminal history. But in cases when that may apply, landlords still can’t inquire about someone’s criminal history until after they’ve determined the applicant is otherwise qualified to rent their apartment and they’ve made a conditional offer of a lease.
That rental agreement would commit the landlord to providing the apartment as long as the applicant meets federal and state mandated criminal history criteria.
Under federal law, there are three categories of people not eligible for federally subsidized housing: people convicted of producing meth in federally funded housing, people on the lifetime sex offender list, and people using illegal drugs.
Council Member Elizabeth Nelson, D-4th Ward, credited one of her constituents, Aaron Suganuma, a formerly incarcerated resident, for raising the issues that led to the ordinance.
“It feels to me like one of the best examples of how your local government works to reflect the interests and concerns that might start with an individual and then turn into a larger issue that’s going to have a really positive impact on many, many more people,” she said.
“And so I just want to thank all the people who spent time and worked on this ordinance to make it happen,” she said, thanking the city’s Human Rights Commission and legal staff.
The Human Rights Commission approved a resolution recently citing estimates that one in three adults in the U.S. has an arrest or conviction record, and nearly half of all children have at least one parent with a criminal record.
The commission also expressed concerns that private criminal record databases from which landlords sometimes pull information are not always accurate.
It also pointed to the disparate impacts on Black people, who are more likely to be incarcerated.
“The unmet housing needs of formerly incarcerated people in Ann Arbor are an acute challenge to dignity, public health and safety and equality,” it stated. “And statistical racial inequities at every stage of the criminal justice system translates into a racial disparity in access to housing.”
Similar measures to prevent discrimination based on criminal history are being enacted or considered in other communities.
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