The door is opening a little wider for ex-offenders to become law-abiding public-housing residents.
That’s because the Housing Authority of New Haven’s (HANH) Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to approve a pilot program that allows preferential placement on lists for an apartment for up to 12 ex-offenders who would normally have been rejected by the authority’s regulations pertaining to past criminal record.
It’s HANH’s way of supporting the citywide effort to provide more “wraparound” services for ex-offenders and thereby cut down on recidivism.
Allan Appel Photo
According to HANH Assistant Executive Director Sheila Bell (pictured), prospects for the program will be referred to HANH by Amy Meek, who coordinates a Re-Entry Roundtable Initiative for ex-offenders. The ultimate decision to admit someone to public housing is HANH’s
In order to admit for the pilot someone who has recently been let out of jail, HANH is relaxing some of its rules. It currently rejects anyone who has committed a felony within the last ten years or certain classes of misdemeanors, like harming a child, within the last three years.
However, all federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) mandatory bases of denial are still in place, according to the pilot program proposal.
Those include finding unacceptable anyone currently using drugs or alcohol; anyone ever convicted of manufacturing methamphetamine on federal premises; anyone registered as a sex offender.
The proposal also allows elilgible ex-offender applicants to rejoin the household of an existing HANH resident.
“We are not under illusions this will be 100 per cent successful,” said HANH Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton. “There will be recidivism, but with supports in place, it will help.”
Those “supports” include weekly meetings for a year between applicants and HANH social workers; and attendance at all recommended classes and therapies that are part of each applicant’s “action plan.” The aplicant also gives HANH staff the right to be in touch with parole officers.
Bell said all this will be written as an addendum into each participant’s lease.
Bell said she’s optimistic about how this program can help in the city’s larger efforts to help ex-offenders reintegrate into society. “Once they come to HANH, they can take advantage of the authority’s programs for job and computer training, and a whole array of support that normally an ex-offender would have to cobble together on his or her own,” she said.
Of 125 people who applied for an apartment in public housing in February, about 35 were rejected for criminal or credit reasons, according to HANH Section 8 Supervisor Tim Regan.
An unacceptable credit history will still remain as a basis to reject ex-offenders.
Who are the people likely to benefit most by the pilot? “We deny a lot of young mothers, as opposed to career criminals [who should be denied]. [These are] people who have made a [single] mistake in their lives, and are denied housing,” said Evelise Iberia, whose job at HANH includes doing the paperwork and registration of the participants.
HANH Commissioners (pictured: Bob Solomon, Jason Turner, Lee Cruz) held a public hearing early in March.
Ribeiro said the responses by HANH residents at the well-attended hearing was generally positive.
One concern raised, as reported in a HANH a summary: That the 12 units not be in a single development. Bell said they would be spread throughout the city so as to avoid any stigmatizing. All, however, will be in public housing developments, not Section 8 housing.
In her printed comments in support of the program, New Haven Legal Assistance Association’s Shelly White, called the program “a laudable step forward in addressing the profound deprivation of basic human needs which recently incarcerated persons face in returning to their communities.”
Bell said that no additional funding is being budgeted or sought for the pilot program.