EXPLAINER — Criminal History as a Protected Class: Ballot Language and Dalagate Guidance

Background

Unify Akron’s Civic Assembly on housing and Freedom BLOC’s resident-led petition for a charter amendment both include criminal history as a protected class. 

• Freedom BLOC’s ballot language came from a citizen-led initiative petition. A group of citizens gathered signatures under Charter Section 136.

  • The Clerk of Council and Summit County Board of Elections verified the signatures, which will put the charter amendment before voters in November 2026. If passed by voters, it becomes law.

• Civic Assembly’s Recommendation #4: Criminal History as a Protected Class was recommended by a supermajority of the randomly selected, representative Civic Assembly during its deliberation on housing. Criminal history as a protected class was brought to the Delegates on the recommendation of the Solutions Team (18 housing professionals from a wide range of sectors and backgrounds who work in housing-related work daily, including an organizer from Freedom BLOC). Delegates then deliberated on that recommendation and produced benefits, tradeoffs, and guidance. See pages 24-29 here.

  • This recommendation was submitted to the City of Akron and Akron City Council for their review, according to the January 2026 MOU and Council Resolution 
    

Where The Two Align

• Both would remove automatic rejections of rental applicants based on a criminal history.

• Both place weight on precise definitions and language.

• Both treat the base protection as incomplete on its own. Neither document treats the bare prohibition as sufficient by itself.

  • The ballot text requires Council to pass implementing legislation within 90 days

  • The Civic Assembly created guidance on what any implementation should contain.
    

Important Note: If the ballot measure passes, the Civic Assembly's Guidance could serve as input to draft the implementing legislation.

A Comparison of Key Issues That Differ

Case-by-case review

• Civic Assembly Guidance:

  • Recommends changing Akron’s housing discrimination rules so that landlords could not automatically reject rental applicants based only on a criminal record.

  • Recommends treating each application on a case-by-case basis rather than applying uniform exclusion policies.

• Ballot Language:

  • No explicit case-by-case mandate.

  • The ballot text prohibits discriminatory acts based on criminal history status using the same framework applied to every other protected class.

Definition of criminal history

• Civic Assembly Guidance:

  • Does not specify definitions. Recommends that any implementation “define excluded crime categories carefully and exactly.”

  • Recommends providing landlords and tenants with clear, specific guidance on what's covered.

• Ballot Language:

  • Includes arrests, detentions, convictions, court orders, and other law enforcement contact.

  • Excludes sex offender/arson registrants.

Lookback period

• Civic Assembly Guidance: Recommends a defined time limit on how far back history could be considered.

• Ballot Language: No time limit specified. Could be addressed in the implementing legislation required by the amendment within 90 days of passage.

Landlord support

• Civic Assembly Guidance: Recommends incentives, education, and training for landlords. Recommends a partnership between landlords, government, and agencies, working together rather than relying solely on legal mandates.

• Ballot Language: Not yet addressed. Could be addressed in the implementing legislation.

Tenant support

• Civic Assembly Guidance: Recommends reentry support for tenants and floats ideas like rehabilitation recognition, a renter's certificate, and reentry service pairing.

• Ballot Language: Not yet addressed. Could be addressed in the implementing legislation.

A Note on Unify Akron's Role:

Unify Akron's role is to convene and steward deliberative processes. The recommendation from the randomly selected and representative Delegates to the Civic Assembly reflects their own deliberation, not an institutional position of Unify Akron.

• Individual Delegates and members associated with Unify Akron may choose to personally endorse the current ballot initiative.

• Currently, Unify Akron does not endorse ballot initiatives. However, Unify Akron may consider endorsing ballot measures if they are directly crafted through a Civic Assembly process, or if they enshrine principles of deliberative democracy into the fabric of our government.

• Unify Akron holds space for Freedom BLOC as a valued community partner.