(Photo by it used to be me)

Nearly two years ago, the D.C. Council passed a bill to “ban the box,” or the question on job applications that inquires about criminal history. Now Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie wants to do the same for most housing applications.

“What we want is for men and women returning to the District, after paying their debt society, to have a fair chance,” McDuffie says. “And finding decent housing is critical to their reintegration.”

Under the Fair Criminal Record Screening for Housing Act of 2016, which McDuffie co-introduced today with At-large Councilmember Anita Bonds, landlords would be prohibited from asking about an applicant’s prior convictions until after they’ve extended a conditional offer.

After a landlord makes the offer, he or she can only rescind it to “achieve a substantial, legitimate, nondiscriminatory interest,” which must be “reasonable” given the nature of the offense, the applicant’s age at the time of the offense, how long ago it occurred, and other factors. The legislation carves out exemptions for when federal or local law requires the consideration of a housing applicant’s criminal background, or cases where the owner also resides in the unit.

The bill was co-sponsored by Councilmembers Yvette Alexander, Charles Allen, Mary Cheh, David Grosso, Jack Evans, LaRuby May, Brianne Nadeau, and Elissa Silverman.

While more than 100 cities and counties and 13 states have “ban the box” laws on the books, similar initiatives for housing applications are much less common. San Francisco’s ordinance is an exception, banning the question on both job and housing applications. A “Fair Chance at Housing Act” was introduced in Los Angeles last year, but it died in appropriations, according to the office of the assembly member who introduced it.

So rather than model D.C.’s law on existing legislation elsewhere, McDuffie’s legislation closely mirrors 2014’s “ban the box” bill (there was some debate at the time about when employers could look at an applicant’s criminal history, but McDuffie fought to keep it after a conditional offer is made), including giving enforcement authority to the Office of Human Rights and enacting penalties for housing providers who don’t comply with the law.

Those provisions have made enforcement of D.C.’s legislation among the strongest in the country. “The law itself was very well-written,” according to Office of Human Rights spokesman Elliot Imse, who explained that the relatively high fines levied on those who violate the law are divided between the government and the complainant. In other jurisdictions, the fines are often too low (or they all go to the government) to encourage people to come forward.

“When you’re someone who’s looking for a job and maybe struggling, you need an incentive to file a complaint and go through the process. It does takes a bit of time, and if these people’s rights have been violated they deserve compensation,” Imse told DCist earlier this year. The result has been some of the highest complaint rates in the country, which experts believe is correlated to the implementation of the law rather than the District simply having more violations.

And after meeting with returning citizens groups in his role as chair of the judiciary committee, McDuffie expects a similar response to banning the box on housing.

“It is a persistent problem that we have encountered in District,” he says, citing the statistic that 17 percent of people under probation or supervised release didn’t have stable housing when they were released. “Their belief is that their convictions have created a barrier for them to find decent housing.” With the cost of rent and supply pressures already a serious problem in the District, finding affordable housing is “really exacerbated for those who have a conviction.”

McDuffie said his office also relied on newly released guidance from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which advised landlords and home sellers that turning down offers based on criminal history may be in violation of the the 1968 Fair Housing Act, in drafting the legislation.