She should.Then you could 1099 her and not worry about payroll taxes - for agent-type services.For the maintenance work she does, also 1099 her by having her bid each job separately.Of course, speak to your tax professional about all this first, to make sure this would all meet IRS self-employment requirements.

Your rental income depends on your tenants remaining employed and paying rent.

If your employer was not owned by you or a family member that sort of self dealing would not be possible.

-the tenant is a friend of mine, and I believe his car and address for employment and bills is still listed at his parents' house a few cities over. 

Also another reason people can need to pivot from utilizing conventional loans is their DTI gets capped or they are self employed and thus despite having ample liquidity to conduct the transaction they’d trying to do, can’t document income to the lender’s standards.  

Paystubs and / or double check their offer of employment with their employer.  

As someone who has hired and worked with many, I’ll tell you that these employment opportunities are great for both sides, just as every business transaction should be.

@Alf Holst another way to achieve what you want is to give preference on occupancy to those employed in town.

I was wondering if there were risk mitigation strategies I could employ.

The company's legal counsel has said a guarantor is not needed, citing the company's annual revenue and an employee, effectively, being unwilling to cut a check on behalf of their employer if it came to that.