The Legal Aid Society brought this lawsuit on behalf of Ms. Smith, a client who was denied an apartment at Alvista Towers, part of New York City’s affordable apartment program, solely because of a decade-old felony conviction. Ms. Smith was qualified for the apartment in every way: she had strong credit, a steady income, and an excellent record for paying the rent. After her rejection, testers at the Fair Housing Justice Center confirmed that Alvista’s policy was to automatically deny applicants with felony records without asking any subsequent questions about mitigating factors or about an applicant’s qualifications, a policy established in concert with the City of New York and the New York City Housing Development Corporation. In the suit, we argued that Alvista was unlawfully discriminating against renters of color, because New Yorkers of color are far more likely to have a felony conviction than are their white counterparts.

As a result of our action, discriminatory criminal background checks have been eliminated for New York City-subsidized housing. The case settled in 2022 and was voluntarily dismissed.