John,

As families across Pennsylvania struggle with rising housing costs, there’s a major barrier to accessibility that rarely gets talked about — but affects TENS of THOUSANDS.

We’ve heard it all before: lawmakers across the aisle say affordability is top priority. The President says affordability is “a hoax”. The American people have affordability top of mind in every aspect of their daily lives. But all parties involved are overlooking a hidden crisis: a provision of federal law called the Thurmond Amendment.

Yusuf Dahl, the executive director of The Century Promise and a leading advocate for repealing the Thurmond Amendment.

This amendment allows landlords to automatically deny housing to anyone with a past conviction related to selling drugs — no matter how long ago it happened, how minor the offense, or how much their life has changed since. Passed in 1988 at the height of the War on Drugs, this carve-out has nothing to do with public safety. Instead, it locks otherwise qualified renters out of housing, shrinks the housing supply, and drives costs even higher — often through automatic screening systems that leave no room for further context or second chances.

That’s why a growing, bipartisan coalition — including housing advocates, reentry organizations, drug policy experts, landlords, and survivors’ groups — is coming together to finally remove this relic of legislation from federal law. 

If we’re serious about affordability, we can’t let fear-based laws from decades ago shape who gets access to housing today.

Read Yusuf Dahl’s Op-Ed

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Together, we can fight for economic accessibility whilst doubling down on criminal justice reform. 

In solidarity,
— Dream.Org