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For years, going to jail erased your spot in line for NYC housing. A new law just stopped that.

Local Law 132, effective March 2026, requires NYC to count jail and prison time toward supportive housing eligibility for formerly incarcerated New Yorkers.

For years, going to jail erased your spot in line for NYC housing. A new law just stopped that.
A new city law counts time spent in jail toward affordable-housing eligibility.
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Local Law 132 went into effect on March 12, 2026, requiring New York City to count time spent in jail, state prison, or a residential mental health facility toward supportive housing eligibility. The old policy treated incarceration as a break in homelessness and reset the eligibility clock for formerly incarcerated New Yorkers.

Under the previous rule, a person who was homeless before incarceration and then confined for 90 days or more lost their accumulated eligibility time upon release. The months spent in detention did not count, and returning New Yorkers had to start over. Local Law 132, originally introduced as Intro 1100 and sponsored by former Councilmember Carlina Rivera, directs the NYC Department of Social Services to count any period of involuntary confinement in a city jail, state prison, or residential mental health facility toward housing eligibility.

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