How to intentionally rent to high risk tenants?

[Dacia Ray]

I know that the vast majority of landlords and property managers will have a simple answer to that question: DON'T.

However, I'm interested in building my MF rental investing and property management business in New York's Hudson Valley around the idea of making housing available to people who are high risk tenants - folks with bad credit, prior convictions, spotty employment, maybe folks who have a prior eviction. I know there are very concrete business reasons to reduce your risk as a landlord and never rent to these folks, and I don't really need to hear the "no, don't do it" argument. I believe that there is a market opportunity here, and I'm trying to figure out a way to reduce my risk while running a business that offers housing to high risk folks. I'm open to accepting section 8 and collaborating with housing agencies and other social services groups as well as other options I haven't discovered yet.

A bit of background: I was at one time, one of those high risk tenants - no bank account, no credit, all cash job, no rental history bc I'd been living with a boyfriend and not on the lease - and I got lucky in moving in with a roommate in a place where the landlord didn't do any screening on me. I also worked in social services in NYC for a number of years and saw how barriers to getting secure housing made people's lives way worse. I'm trying to figure out how to live my values of housing security and economic justice while also growing my business as a real estate investor. I realize that might be a bleeding heart fantasy and recipe for financial ruin, but I'm a big ideas and problem-solving kind of person.

So: suggestions for setting up a property management process with this rental population in mind?