Bipartisan congressional lawmakers have filed a bill that would repeal a decades-old federal statute that’s led to the denial of housing for millions of people with prior drug convictions.
Repsresentatives Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-FL) and Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) filed the legislation—titled the “Fair Future Act”—on March 4. An earlier version was introduced with a Senate companion last session, but it did not advance to enactment.
The measure would strike a section of the 1988 Fair Housing Amendments Act that the lawmakers say has prevented more than 9 million people from accessing rental housing no matter how serious the charge was or how long it was since they were convicted.
“Outdated housing policies and conflicting state laws deny those with prior drug convictions a fair shot.”
“Because drug laws vary widely from state to state, this policy can produce dramatically different outcomes for Americans living just miles apart,” said a press release from Frost’s office. “In one state, a person may serve jail time for marijuana possession and then face permanent exclusion from federal Fair Housing protections. Across the state line, however, the same conduct may be entirely legal.”
Frost said that “housing is a fundamental human right and the foundation for a stable and dignified life.”
“People who have served their time and repaid their debt to society should be no exception. Outdated housing policies and conflicting state laws deny those with prior drug convictions a fair shot at reentering society,” he said. “At the same time, the criminalization of homelessness only deepens the cycle of instability, setting people up to fail before they have a chance to rebuild. The Fair Future Act will help break this cycle of exclusion and ensure that a past mistake does not erase a person’s right to a safe, stable place to call home.”
Mackenzie, for his part, said that fair housing access “is fundamental to the American Dream,” and, for many, the current statute “has become an insurmountable obstacle.”
“It’s time to give every American equal opportunity when applying for a lease.”
“By allowing housing providers to automatically reject some applicants based on certain past drug convictions, regardless of how much time has passed, the law can shut the door on individuals who have worked to rebuild their lives,” the congressman said. “It’s time to give every American equal opportunity when applying for a lease.”
Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) filed the Senate companion of the Fair Future Act in 2024. It remains to be seen whether he will lead on the legislation in his chamber this session.
Booker and Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) introduced a separate bill in December to allow people living in federally assisted housing to use marijuana in compliance with state laws without having to fear losing their homes.
Under current policy, people who live in public housing are prohibited from using controlled substances in those facilities regardless of state law, and landlords are able to evict them. The bicameral legislation—titled the “Marijuana in Federally Assisted Housing Parity Act”—would change that.
Norton has filed similar versions of the proposal over recent sessions, but the reform has yet to be enacted. Booker joined Norton in sponsoring the legislation last Congress as well.
In 2018, a Trump administration official said that she was working to resolve conflicting federal and state marijuana laws as it applies to residency in federally-subsidized housing, but it’s not clear what came of that effort.
Norton sent a letter to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 2021 that implored it to use executive discretion and not punish people over cannabis in legal states. In response, the President Joe Biden’s HUD secretary told the congresswoman that it is statutorily required to continue denying federally assisted housing to people who use marijuana, even if they’re acting in compliance with state law.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) also raised the issue during a committee hearing in 2019, pressing former HUD Secretary Ben Carson (R) on policies that cause public housing residents and their families to be evicted for low-level convictions such as marijuana possession.
Ocasio-Cortez and then-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) also filed legislation that year that would protect people with low-level drug convictions from being denied access to or being evicted from public housing.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced an affordable housing bill in 2020 that included a provision to prevent landlords from evicting people over manufacturing marijuana extracts if they have a license to do so.
Earlier in March, Merkley filed an amendment to House-passed housing bill with provisions that would allow people who work in the state-legal marijuana industry to qualify for federal mortgage loans.
Photograph (cropped) by Kjetil Ree via Wikimedia Commons/Creative Commons 2.5
This story was originally published by Marijuana Moment, which tracks the politics and policy of cannabis and drugs. Follow Marijuana Moment on X and Facebook, and sign up for its newsletter.
