Criminals

[Sahel T.]

Hello, new to this website, I had a question, how often do you guys rent to criminals? Do you have a policy for that, such as type of crime will deny the application?

I want to give people changes because I can understand how difficult life is. It's a couple that is trying to move in, the boyfriend was arrested and convicted on strong armed robbery. Help. 

[Denise Evans]

The disparate impact argument rests upon statistical evidence related to drug crimes. When federal sentencing guidelines were put into place years ago, it was felt that crack cocaine was a more serious drug than powder cocaine, because crack was instantly addictive. Powder cocaine was seen as more of a recreational drug that could be used or discontinued at will. As a result, there were longer sentences, and lower thresholds for mandatory incarceration, for crack.  This spread into other areas. The disparate impact comes about because crack and similar things are the drugs of choice for economically disadvantaged people, many of whom are African American and Hispanic. Powder cocaine is the drug of choice, largely, of middle class and affluent white people. It means that a protected class is statistically more likely to have felony convictions, and longer prison time, simply because of their economic status and drug choices.

That is the reason you can have a blanket policy such as "no felony convictions within the past five years."  You can, however, have policies that say "no felony convictions with a firearms enhancement within the last five years" or similar things.

HUD wants you to look at age of conviction, the felony crime, and length of time since conviction. For example, the part of a young man's brain related to exercising good judgment doesn't even fully mature until in the early 20s. A conviction for distribution of a controlled substance by a 20 year old is different than one by a 30 year old. Multiple convictions are more serious. If the crime is possession, vs. assault with a deadly weapon, those would seem to indicate different responses.

Bottom line: think about a policy that addresses these concerns, come up with rules that you can justify if asked, and stick to your rules.  Same as before, it's just that you need more rules instead of a single rule about criminal convictions.

Finally, remember that arrests without conviction cannot be considered at all.