11.21.14 Landlord Association Encourages Renting to Criminals

The quarterly newsletter of one of our landlord associations (we belong to two) had some articles about renting to criminals.

THE DEBATE

The politically correct terminology is proving housing to offenders. The argument is that offenders have successfully completed their jail time and need housing. Criminals often have parole officers, counseling, and access to community service help, all of which help with accountability and ability to be a stable tenant.

The article warns that if landlords have a strict policy of not renting to convicted felons under any circumstances, that HUD could step in and make convicts a protected class. They would argue discrimination, since there are a higher percentage of minorities in jail than the general population.

I learned that some states ban reporting convictions during screening, and that my state bans reporting convictions more than seven years old. The article suggests not digging for criminal activity in the distant past, and disregarding any dropped charges where there was not a conviction.

The article suggests that not all felons are dangerous or at risk to offend, that many are good and responsible people who have made a mistake, and that the US has five times more people in jail than any other country. The connection between many criminal offensives and tenant performance is diminishing, so why not give renting to criminals a try?

OUR POLICY

I would guess that at least half of our applicants have some sort of criminal background. If we had a strict no criminal policy, like some of the local property management companies do, we’d struggle to rent out our low income units. Most relate to domestic violence, but we also see theft, assault, drugs, and driving with a suspended license.  Our experience shows that those without criminal activity are better tenants and that those with criminal records have been some of our worst, but we have not yet tightened our criteria/screening point system.

We turn down level 3 sex offenders (predatory or multiple offenses) and applicants who fail to note their criminal activity on the application. We retain the ability to turn down level 2 sex offenders (single offense, normally non-familial) and applicants we think would destroy our property or terrorize the neighborhood. Our screening criteria reads: Criminal activity is at our discretion depending on severity, number of convictions, and how long ago. We judge felonies as more serious and less desirable than misdemeanors.

If applicants have more than two incidents of criminal activity or if the activity has occurred in the past 4 years or less, the applicants need to have other strong attributes to overcome these negatives, such as strong rental or work history. The applicant who has never rented, has only had a job for a month, and is determined to turn over a new leaf may be a good fit because they don’t have many housing options and would likely stay longer, but they are also a high risk for not being stable enough to pay rent and stay out of trouble.