Credit: Vitalii Vodolazskyi/Adobe Stock


In recent years, housing discrimination claims in New York City and State have predominantly involved alleged discrimination on the basis of disability, age, citizenship status, color, creed, familial status, gender, lawful occupation, lawful source of income, marital status, national origin, partnership status, race, religion, sexual orientation, and status as a veteran or victim of domestic violence (see NYC Admin Code. §8-107[5] the “City Human Rights Law,” Title 8 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York, see also, Executive Law Art. 15, the “SHRL,” and the Fair Housing Act, 42 USC 42 U.S.C.A. §3601, et. seq. the “FHA,” collectively the “Housing Discrimination Laws”).

Agencies such as the New York State Homes & Community Renewal (HCR) (doc-w-kyr-justice-involvement_9.12.2022.pdf (ny.gov)), the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) (marketing-handbook-8-21.pdf (nyc.gov)), the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC), and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) (Office of the General Counsel (hud.gov)), have long taken the position that blanket denial of applicants with criminal convictions has a disparate impact on persons of color.

As such, these agencies have implemented restrictions and recommendations for entities receiving benefits from such agencies when reviewing criminal background checks for prospective applicants.