Champaign Reentry Housing Update

The Reentry Housing issue is being revisited this upcoming Tuesday, December 10th at a City Council Study Session. Meeting agenda is available here and the updated study session report here. The last Cheat Sheet update on this issue was after the last study session where the City Council directed City staff to formulate a compromise reform. From the staff's latest report:

On June 25, 2019, a Study Session was held to discuss Section 17-4.5 of the Human Rights Ordinance. Council gave
direction to staff to bring back the following alternatives concerning this section:

a) reducing the post prison time to consider convictions from 5 years to 2 years;
b) clarifying what type of convictions would be considered;
c) clarifying that people on probation and parole were not to be included in this
provision;
d) providing information relative to the process under the Cook County Just Housing
amendment relating to the responsibility of the landlord in the process relative to
more individualized assessment.

The clarifying language will certainly help alleviate some of the confusion on exactly what discrimination was or wasn't protected for people who had been sentenced only to probation or others on parole. The reduction from 5 years to 2 will almost certainly be insufficient to activists who still view that as 2 years where discrimination is allowed, and directly impacts minority communities in a disparate way. For others this compromise may be an improvement, if not ideal, given that prior to 1994 and the 5 year exemption, it wouldn't have been allowed at all.

The arguments for removing the exemption entirely versus a compromise and discussions on what the language actually says and means was covered at length in the last study session (Cheat Sheet post and links here). The previous City staff's report was very detailed and helpful to understand the issue from the City's perspective and the interests involved, from landlords to rental companies, to criminal justice and housing activists and reformers. CU Indivisible had a report on their take on the situation last year, available here.

Also on the agenda the same evening is looking at a report on zoning issues with potential reentry housing programs for groups of recently incarcerated people. For anyone interested in reentry housing programs, that may be worth checking out as well here. This may relate to the joint collaboration by First Followers and the Housing Authority of Champaign County's FirstSteps Community House.