(CBS DETROIT) – The Detroit City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to support the Fair Chance Access to Housing Act. Advocates hope this will send a message to lawmakers in Lansing that they want House Bill 4878 to be voted into law.
“To be honest, I don’t know why the Michigan House hasn’t passed it yet,” Marvin Cotton Jr. said. from Nation Outside. “It should be pretty easy. It’s safer for the community to give people housing.”
Cotton works with Nation Outside, a Michigan advocacy group that supports people affected by the justice system. He said the purpose of the bill is to prevent landlords from discriminating against former inmates.
“I spent 20 years in prison. Nineteen years, seven months and 12 days in prison for a crime I didn’t commit,” Cotton said. “I was acquitted on October 1, 2020. And once you are acquitted, it is not removed from your record. So I know what it feels like to not be able to get housing, not to be able to rent a house Because they see this crime appear when they have a do a background check on you. That took a number of months for me. Where landlords could take advantage of me and charge me more because they knew I couldn’t go somewhere else.”
He said people with criminal records often have to jump through extra hoops to find a rental property.
“I’ve heard stories from women in our group… where they had to trade favors so that the background check could be overlooked because they knew they had nowhere else to go. So it’s a bad situation. “
The Fair Chance Access to Housing Act would limit the use of background checks during the rental application process.
“There are still background checks, but they can’t deny someone’s application just because they committed a crime. They never give the money back. You know they’ll take your money for the application fee, and then they’ll deny you. that they will refuse you if there is a crime. But this can get you past the initial stages. And if a landlord has a specific problem with crime, they can put in writing why they don’t want to rent it.”
He said the change would help prevent people from returning to prison and keep all communities safer.
“A person is more likely to live a successful life if he or she can take advantage of the most important things society has to offer. And owning a home is one of them,” Cotton said.
He said the Detroit City Council’s unanimous vote in support of the bill should send a loud message to lawmakers in Lansing, but the bill is currently still in committee awaiting a vote.
Kelly Vaughen
