by Colleen O’Dea - NJ Spotlight News

New Jersey lawmakers and social-justice advocates launched a push Tuesday for legislation to help the formerly incarcerated rent an apartment by curtailing the ability of landlords to deny housing to some people based on their criminal histories.

The Fair Chance Housing Act, embodied in S-250 and A-1919, is an effort to “ban the box” that asks whether a person has been convicted of a crime on housing-rental applications. The bills would still allow a landlord to ultimately deny renting to someone with a criminal record based on certain criteria and if the landlord has a “substantial, legitimate and nondiscriminatory interest” in doing so. But failure to follow the law would subject a landlord to penalties.