A housing authority may check your CORI only if you sign a form that says you know the housing authority is requesting your CORI. This form also asks you for personal information, such as your Social Security Number and mother’s maiden name, to help make certain it is your CORI the employer will receive.

The housing authority may not ask you to get your CORI for them and show it to them. It is against the law for a housing authority to ask you to bring a copy of your own CORI. Your own CORI may have more charges on it than the copy that a housing authority can get on their own. You do not have to give a copy of your own CORI to anyone.

Before a housing authority denies your application, or ends your lease because of your CORI, they must first do these things:

• Notify you that they might turn you down for the job ,
• Give you a copy of the CORI they have for you, that they got from the CHSB,
• Tell you what part of your CORI is a problem, and
• Give you the chance to have a meeting to discuss your CORI. Massachusetts law gives you the right to “contest the accuracy and relevance of your CORI.” This means:
  • You can explain any mistakes on your CORI;
  • You can explain why your CORI should not matter (for example, if the cases happened a long time ago, or had nothing to do with the job, etc.); and
• You can also use this meeting to show the housing authority any letters of recommendation that you have, such as the sample “changed person” letter.

Note:

If the housing worker does not know about the regulation and your rights, you can show the employer a copy of the regulation 803 CMR 6.11.

 

• If I have a CORI, what should I know about applying for public housing?
• What CORI is available to private landlords?
• What rights do I have if I am denied housing because of my CORI?

If I have a CORI, what should I know about applying for public housing?

Public housing authorities check the CORIs of people who apply for housing. If you are applying for public housing, a Section 8 voucher, or a Massachusetts Rental Housing Voucher, a housing authority or regional nonprofit housing agency is allowed to get a CORI report on all members of your household who are 17 years or older. They are also allowed to get CORI on people who are younger than 17 who have been tried as adults.

Housing authorities are allowed to see only convictions and pending or open cases on your CORI. They should not be able to see any record of cases that ended in your favor, or any sealed cases.

Different housing authorities may have varying policies for deciding if a person with a CORI may rent an apartment. Generally, if a person has recent convictions for drug-related crimes or violent crimes, he or she may be disqualified from public housing.

What CORI is available to private landlords?

Private landlords who own multifamily subsidized housing units can check CORIs, but only if they get special permission from the Criminal History Systems Board.

Owners of federal multifamily project-based subsidized housing can ask the local housing authority to check the CORI of any tenant who is 17 years old or older (and persons younger than 17 if they were tried as adults).

The local housing authority does not give the CORI to the landlord, but will tell the landlord if there is something on the CORI that would disqualify the tenant under the landlord’s own tenant selection policy.

Private landlords who rent non-subsidized apartments usually cannot check CORIs. Private landlords may get the same type of CORI reports that the general public can see. However, private landlords might also use private background-checking companies to check the criminal records and credit histories of people who want to rent their apartments.

What rights do I have if I am denied housing because of my CORI?

If you apply for housing but are denied because of your CORI, you have certain rights:

• The housing authority should not check your CORI until it decides that you are qualified to become a tenant.
• Before the housing authority denies your application or ends your lease because of your CORI, they must first do these things:
  1. Notify you that they might turn down your application for housing,
  2. Give you a copy of your CORI,
  3. Tell you what part of your CORI is a problem, and
  4. Give you the chance to have a meeting to discuss your CORI. Massachusetts law gives you the right to “contest the accuracy and relevance of your CORI.”
• If your housing application is denied, you have a right to a hearing. The letter denying your application should have instructions for how to request a hearing.

You can find more information about background checks for housing and how to challenge a denial of housing in the PDF files  Tenant Screening and Denial of Housing in Legal Tactics: Finding Public and Subsidized Housing published by the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute.