HUD Rescinds Previous Guidance on Use of Arrest Records in Housing Decisions
By: Tushar Gurjal, Senior Policy Manager
October 1, 2025 – On Sept. 30 (although the notice is dated Sept. 26) HUD published a notice titled “Rescission of Joint Notice PIH 2015-19 / H 2015-10, Guidance on the Us e of Arrest Records in Housing Decisions” (Notice PIH 2025-26 / H 2025-05). This notice applies to “all owners of federally assisted housing and PHAs and localities that operate a Public Housing or Housing Choice Voucher program.” It rescinds a prior notice on how housing providers should use arrest records in housing decisions. The new notice states that housing providers should ” . . . continue to follow HUD regulations at 24 CFR 5.851, 24 CFR 960 and 24 CFR 982 and all relevant State and local laws related to the use of arrest records in housing decisions.”
The new notice rescinds Notice PIH 2015-19 titled “Guidance for Public Housing Agencies as (PHAs) and Owners of Federally-Assisted Housing on Excluding the Use of Arrest Records in Housing Decisions.” The old notice stated to PHAs and owners that “arrest records may not be the basis for denying admission, terminating assistance or evicting tenants . . .” and ” . . . that HUD does not require [the] adoption of “One Strike” policies . . . .” The old notice further stated that while the record of arrest may not be used to deny housing opportunities, the underlying conduct could be used in denying housing opportunities. The rationale for this guidance was that arrest records were often inaccurate or incomplete and, by themselves, did not meet the preponderance of evidence standard used to deny a housing opportunity, though an arrest record could trigger an inquiry to see if there was sufficient evidence for a PHA to determine whether a person engaged in a disqualifying criminal activity. The old notice also provided best practices and peer examples.
The old, rescinded notice on arrest records and best practices can be found here.
The new notice, which rescinds the old arrest records notice, can be found here.