I found out today, that this man is a felon who is on probation for violent assault (not disclosed by the former landlord).

That's right, we got bumped down from the top most violent city, to the second most violent city (https://www.detroitnews.com/st...).

I live in South Orlando and I can see that what I can afford now, with my mortgage and my paycheck income, is a place like Poinciana which they keep trying to "bring up" but you can't bring up a city with constant violent crime and schools with "1 of 10" rating and students reviewing that they have active gang members as classmates. 

First loan officer had a mental breakdown on the phone and wept violently then hung up and said he'd call back (didn't).

The population is very small in Clarksdale and there has been some violent crime down there of late.

@Kim Giannola Just doing a quick 2 minute google search I found that in 2012 New Britain had the 4th most property crimes of any city/town in CT and the 6th most violent crimes.

There are actually several reasons: first and most importantly you want background checks to make sure they aren't violent offenders, rapist, child molestor, etc. because they could easily offend again towards your other tenants or damage the property.  

I would still avoid people that skip bills regularly, have evictions, or felonies, particularly violent ones.    

It's pretty transparent.Here in MA, a felony on your record must be disclosed, but isn't necessarily an automatic decline, unless it was a violent felony like rape or murder. 

I want to create a program for non violent offenders that were recently incarcerated so they can use their trades/skills to physically help rebuild their neighborhoods.