Eager to turn her life around, Smith, who’s now 59, needed to find a permanent place to stay. That wasn’t easy. For her first six months outside prison, she lived in transitional housing. For the next year and a half, she stayed with relatives. Finding an apartment of her own proved nearly impossible.
Landlords typically perform criminal background checks on their tenants, a practice Smith believes led to her being rejected time and time again, and one that the City Council is now planning to ban under a bill from Brooklyn Councilman Steve Levin. That legislation is expected to get a full Council vote — and pass with Mayor de Blasio’s support — in the coming weeks.