In November 2025, HUD Secretary Scott Turner issued a letter to Public Housing Authorities and private owners that rescinded decades of guidance on how criminal arrests and convictions should be considered in housing decisions. This dramatic policy shift threatens to destabilize families, increase homelessness, and undermine years of progress toward fair and evidence-based housing access.
For Louisiana—the most incarcerated state in the nation—the stakes couldn’t be higher. That’s why housing advocates, legal aid organizations, and community partners across the state are speaking out. Below is the letter being sent to Public Housing Authorities throughout Louisiana, urging them to maintain fair housing practices despite the federal rollback.
Dear Public Housing Authorities,
The following organizations write to share with you our concerns about HUD Secretary Scott Turner’s November 25th letter to Public Housing Authorities and private owners of project-based rental assistance. HUD has rescinded all prior guidance regarding criminal convictions and arrest records. This decision casts aside decades of progress toward fair, evidence-based affordable housing access for people with criminal arrests and convictions. In response, we offer the following information and perspective:
HUD’s own mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes; utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination and transform the way HUD does business.
This mission can’t be met if entire families are denied housing because a family member has a past conviction, an arrest that never resulted in a finding of guilt, or a history of substance use.
You see daily, through your work, how closely housing insecurity is tied to the criminal legal system. Our state has made intentional commitments towards rehabilitative and public health approaches to addiction, mental illness and physical disabilities. Our housing policy should not diverge from these efforts, as safe, stable housing is central to sustainability.
Louisiana is the most incarcerated (and formerly incarcerated) jurisdiction in the world. Even more Louisianans have been sentenced to forms of “alternative” supervision, such as probation, where judges and prosecutors hope to see people, and their families, succeed when sentenced to less than jail time. The direction suggested by HUD’s letter would lead to an unnecessary (and difficult to reverse) spike in homelessness, destabilize families, and work against court-ordered goals for rehabilitation and public safety.
Additionally, basing housing decisions on arrests alone violates both the presumption of innocence and right to Due Process. Championing outdated “One Strike” policies, as in the recent HUD letter, not only removes discretion from local decision-makers, but also creates a heartless program that will result in devastating, and often irreversible, family separation. Additionally, these policies expose PHAs and owners to increased risk of litigation and community pushback.
Our federal, state, and local governments have been building programs to reduce discrimination, support reentry, and keep families unified. Nothing in the Secretary’s letter requires you to abandon those efforts. You retain broad authority to
adopt policies that promote community safety and lean into building “inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination.”
Please notify us of any upcoming proposals to revise your Admissions and Continued Occupancy Policies (ACOP), Housing Voucher Administrative Plans, or related screening and termination standards. This allows us, and our partners across the state, to provide input and support policies that meet HUD’s mission while protecting the stability of Louisiana’s families.
Thank you for your continued work and your commitment to safe, inclusive communities.
Sign On Organizations Include:
- ACLU of Louisiana, Sarah Whittington, Advocacy Director
- Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance
- Housing Louisiana
- Housing NOLA
- Louisiana Parole Project
- Operation Restoration
- Power Coalition for Equity and Justice
- StepUp Louisiana
- UNITY of Greater New Orleans
- Vera Institute of Justice
- Voice of the Experienced
- Voters Organized to Educate