Guardian: ‘They’re shut out of the market’ | The struggle to rent with a criminal record
- February 10, 2022
- •Homes
Three-quarters of a million New Yorkers have convictions in their history. ‘Fair chance’ laws could change their lives.
Two hours after she toured a one-bedroom apartment at a New York City Housing Authority (Nycha) development in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Christina Johnson returned to the building’s management office with $1,861 – exactly one month’s rent plus a security deposit. It was the last week of September 2020, and years of careful saving for an apartment of her own were finally over.
After returning the requisite paperwork, she waited for a follow-up call from the management and daydreamed about her new home – how she’d set the bedroom furniture up, what she’d put in its five closets. Johnson, a single mom with one son, rewatched the video she’d made of the apartment and talked to everyone about it. She refreshed the Nycha portal regularly, scanning for updates.
Six days after touring the apartment, Johnson saw on the portal that her application status had changed from certified to “pending ineligibility”. Puzzled, she went back to the management office and found her money had been returned. Read the full story.
