Due to a combination of federal and local policies, many people with criminal histories are excluded from federally subsidized housing. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has a number of policies, commonly referred to as the "One Strike and You're Out" policy, that require all Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) or federally assisted housing providers to deny housing to a variety of categories of people: individuals previously evicted from public or federally subsidized housing for drug-related criminal activity; individuals subject to lifetime registry under state sex offenders registration programs; individuals convicted of methamphetamine production on public housing premises; individuals currently abusing alcohol in a manner that interferes with the health, safety, or peaceful enjoyment of the premises by other residents; and individuals currently using illegal drugs. In addition, federal statutes authorize PHAs to reject from housing or terminate the lease of households where any household member's drug use, alcohol abuse, or criminal behavior threatens other residents. While there is substantial local discretion in making these decisions, some assisted housing providers, including local housing agencies, have used their authority to make wholesale rejections of the application by persons with criminal histories. In 1997, for example, PHAs denied admission to a total of 45,079 individuals, attributing 43 percent of all rejections to the "One Strike" policy. Public housing evictions have increased since housing agencies began to use the new policy, and later the law, to regain management control of housing communities that were in some cases overcome by drug and gang crime. ^[1]