BALTIMORE CITY Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano's arrest record would keep him from being housed by his own agency.
His arrest in December 2000 on charges he was drunk and disorderly in a Fells Point bar would be enough to make him ineligible for a Section 8 voucher or public housing, even though he was never convicted.
That's because the Housing Authority of Baltimore City maintains what is essentially a "zero tolerance" policy on arrests and convictions. Any arrest, regardless of its disposition, will be used against the applicant, as will any conviction, regardless of the crime or its relation to tenancy.
As attorneys who have represented more than 100 people in such situations, we at the Homeless Persons Representation Project have witnessed this policy in action. We've seen shoplifting, urinating in public and riding the light rail without a ticket cited as reasons to deny housing, even when the offense happened 10 years ago.
As attorneys who have reviewed the federal law to which all housing authorities must ascribe, we know it doesn't have to be this way.
Under federal law, the Housing Authority must deny housing to sex offenders subject to a lifetime registry requirement and to prior subsidized housing tenants who were evicted because of methamphetamine production or drug-related criminal activity.
The same law, however, directs housing authorities to construct policies governing the admission of other ex-offenders, specifically those with violent, drug-related or "other" criminal activity that may threaten the health and safety of other tenants.
Such policies are to include "reasonable" time periods for which such offenders can be barred from subsidized housing and a process by which ex-offenders can shorten these periods by showing rehabilitation, exigent circumstances, etc.
To date, the Housing Authority effectively has abdicated its responsibility to create these ex-offender admission policies or to give rejected applicants a meaningful review.
While publicly taking the disingenuous position that federal law precludes local discretion, housing officials privately have made half-hearted attempts to fulfill their legal duty to create local admissions policies. Their written attempts have been either unintelligible or too vague to be applied in a uniform and equitable manner.
The lack of clear directive has left Housing Authority policies in the hands of front-line workers, who simply presume that any criminal justice involvement makes an applicant unfit for tenancy. Those rejected who are angry enough to appeal are directed to untrained agency employees who sit as hearing officers.
The result is simply untenable for a city whose future is tied to the success of ex-offenders. State corrections officials report that about 8,000 people are released each year from their facilities and return to Baltimore City. They also estimate that another 3,000 persons are housed in the city jail each day awaiting trial. Each of these offenders needs housing, employment and social support to succeed.
The Housing Authority controls about 27,000 units of affordable housing through the Section 8 and public housing programs. These units have become precious in a private housing market in which rents are soaring.
According to a recent report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Baltimore led all metropolitan areas last year with the largest increase in the "housing wage" - the wage needed to afford an apartment renting at fair market rates. The hourly wage now needed to rent a two-bedroom apartment in the region is $16.23, a whopping 22 percent increase over last year.
This wage is out of reach for many ex-offenders, whose criminal records frequently bar them from employment or limit employment advancement. Shut out of private housing by market forces and shut out of subsidized housing by policy, many ex-offenders predictably find themselves homeless.
Mr. Graziano could heed their cries on public policy grounds alone: The revamping of subsidized housing should be conducted in a balanced manner that considers the unfortunate fact that a significant portion of Baltimore's population has been arrested or incarcerated.
Or he could cite recidivism studies that show that the likelihood of ex-offenders returning to crime diminishes as time passes and construct time-limited housing bars for certain offenders.
As an ex-offender who retained his job only because of the forgiveness of a community all too familiar with arrests and addiction-related defenses, Mr. Graziano should recognize and act on a basic spiritual tenet: Absolution is granted with an expectation of reciprocity.
J. Peter Sabonis Jr. is a lawyer and executive director of the Homeless Persons Representation Project in Baltimore City.