Ogden Good Landlord Program now offers certain convicts more housing choices
Kenny Decius stands in front of his new apartment in Central Ogden on Friday, Oct. 21, 2016. Decius moved into the apartment in September after several months in homeless shelters and decrepit apartments. As a teenager, Decius was convicted of a felony for drug possession. Decius says he's been clean ever since, but Ogden's Good Landlord Program discourages landlords from renting to former felons.
Anna Brower, strategic communications manager for the ACLU of Utah, right, speaks during a panel discussion on pending changes to the Good Landlord Program Monday, Feb. 15, 2016, inside the Pleasant Valley Branch library in Ogden. At left is Mark Johnson, chief administrative officer for Ogden City.
Kenny Decius says he enjoys his new apartment, however, the rent is high for a small one-bedroom unit. Decius's housing options are limited because of a felony conviction from when he was a teenager and an eviction that lead to him living in a homeless shelter.
Kenny Decius says he enjoys his new apartment, however, the rent is high for a small one-bedroom unit. Decius's housing options are limited because of a felony conviction from when he was a teenager and an eviction that lead to him living in a homeless shelter.
OGDEN — Ogden City’s Good Landlord Program, launched in 2004, gives landlords hefty discounts on their business license fees if they refuse to rent to felons.
But as of Oct. 1, a new pilot program allows the city to issue waivers to certain individuals with criminal histories so they can rent a Good Landlord-approved dwelling. The move was made because parolees and probationers often have to settle for substandard housing because of the Program’s prohibition — the pilot could test whether better housing options reduces recidivism.
RELATED: Ogden’s Good Landlord Program could lose its felony exclusion soon
Ogden City Chief Administrative Officer Mark Johnson defended the need for the Good Landlord Program, saying the city has long shouldered the burden of a heavy concentration of parolees and probationers.
“Forty-four percent of (Utah’s) halfway house beds are in our city,” Johnson said, “and we have four percent of the state’s population.”
After Ogden instituted its Good Landlord Program, a dozen other Utah cities followed suit, narrowing the areas along the Wasatch Front where people with criminal backgrounds could rent. For some cities, the program became a source of sorely needed revenue.
One man’s journey
Ogden resident Kenny Decius is no stranger to Ogden’s rental roadblocks. Arrested in 2009 for felony possession and use of marijuana — shortly before his 19th birthday — it took about five years to finally fulfilled all the terms of his probation. He was also evicted from an apartment earlier this year after a squabble with his landlord over a parking issue.
“In the past, I’ve tried to rent and have been straight up about my felonies and told I would be denied, so don’t bother to apply,” Decius said.
After spending several months at the Lantern House, Ogden’s homeless shelter, he began work as a groundskeeper and finally found an apartment.
Now at 26, life is starting to once again look up for Decius.
He’s finally found an apartment in a central Ogden fourplex where the landlord is not part of the Good Landlord Program.
“The rent is kind of high. The landlord gives everyone one chance,” Decius said. Even so, he said he’s grateful to be in his own place and looks forward to enrolling in computer science classes at Weber State University.
State focus shifts to rehabilitation
In 2015 Utah lawmakers enacted criminal justice reforms that caused some to take a second look at Good Landlord programs and how much benefit they actually provide to communities.
While Ogden City officials were not ready to abandon the criminal exclusion altogether, they established the pilot program in conjunction with law enforcement and Adult Probation and Parole to allow a Ogden’s Good Landlord Program participants to rent to certain individuals who would otherwise be denied.
The program stipulates if a prospective tenant is on probation or parole, they have a chance to get a waiver from Ogden City’s business licensing office. The landlord must then contact the business licensing office to confirm the waiver’s validity before approving that person’s lease.
According to the city’s website, the pilot program “recognizes the goal of the Utah legislature, through adoption of the Utah Justice Reinvestment Initiative, to maintain secure communities while recognizing the risks and treatment needs of individual offenders.”
But only those deemed low risk by Adult Probation and Parole and the Ogden Police Department can qualify for the waiver, Johnson said.
“The waiver is good for one year. We make sure they’re working towards rehabilitation and have not committed more offenses,” Johnson said. “If they start to violate their (probation or parole) agreement, but it’s not serious enough to get incarcerated, (probation or parole officers) can notify us and we’ll pull the waiver.”
Johnson believes it should give landlords a good barometer to determine if they want to continue to rent to those individuals.
“I think it’s a happy medium that addresses concerns on both sides. We’ll look at the numbers — it’s a pilot program and we expect to tweak it as we go,” Johnson said.
According to the waiver form, an applicant can appeal denial or revocation of a waiver within 30 days but must pay a $25 filing fee.
Criminal exclusion questioned
Some hoped for a more significant change in the Good Landlord Program.
Anna Brower, strategic communications manager for the ACLU of Utah, credited Ogden officials with “trying to do the right thing,” but said she would have preferred that the criminal exclusion be eliminated altogether, leaving the decision up to the landlord. Brower feels the new waiver adds another layer of bureaucracy for those hoping to leave their past errors behind.
“It’s not what we were hoping to see,” Brower said. “Our understanding was that Ogden would work with the Department of Corrections and Adult Probation and Parole to assess the risk of recidivism and remove the entire exclusion.”
From Brower’s perspective, yanking landlord discounts on licensing fees for those who would otherwise give convicts reinforces discrimination against those who might be trying to turn their lives around
The ACLU of Utah is hopeful the upcoming legislative session, which starts in January, will help address the issue better. Rep. Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, is working on a measure that would eliminate the criminal exclusion from the Good Landlord program.
While King agrees that Ogden’s pilot program is a good faith effort, he said he objects to the city maintaining a disincentive for landlords to rent to individuals recently released from jail or prison.
“It puts those folks more behind the eight ball than they already are. So (the pilot) is a little better than the current law, but the core — the criminal exclusion — is still there,” King said.
“The new provision is better than what was in place before, but the disincentive is still there in a slightly watered down form — and that makes me crazy,” King said. “These are men and women who are trying to get back on their feet, and we’re making it tougher . . . I think we ought to take action to prohibit cities from doing this.”
Contact reporter Cathy McKitrick at 801-625-4214 or cmckitrick@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter at @catmck.
