What can landlords screen tenants for? Olympia to host workshop on new rules
The City of Olympia is hosting a training workshop on Nov. 5 alongside the Fair Housing Center of Washington to help inform people of tenant screening companies and new federal requirements.
According to an Oct. 23 news release from the city, landlords, property managers and nonprofit housing providers in Thurston County are invited to attend the workshop from noon to 1 p.m. Nov. 5 to learn about the Department of Housing and Urban Development guidance about screening companies and eligibility requirements.
The 24-page HUD guidance document includes recommendations and rules on conducting non-discriminatory screening.
The document states three types of screenings particularly pose fair housing concerns: credit history, eviction history and criminal records.
According to the document, Black and other people of color are more likely to have inaccurate credit reports or have had experiences that resulted in low or no credit scores.
As of Aug. 2021, Native American, Black and Hispanic individuals had median credit scores of 612, 627 and 667, respectively. At the same time, white individuals had a median score of 727. And those with disabilities are more likely to report they have a “bad” or “very bad” credit score than those without disabilities.
The document states that survivors of domestic violence, who are disproportionately women, are also more likely to have had experiences resulting in no or low credit scores.
Evictions
According to the document, eviction records are one of the most commonly marketed facets of tenant screening, and they’re standard in many screening reports. The document states tenant screening companies have built private databases from court records of eviction cases individuals have been involved in.
“Court records of evictions are notably unreliable: 22% of the eviction records evaluated in a large study contained ambiguous information on how the case was resolved or falsely represented a tenant’s eviction history,” the document states.
And evictions disproportionately affect Black and Hispanic renters, women, families with children, and individuals with disabilities. Even though fewer than 1 in 5 renters are Black, over half of all eviction cases are filed against Black renters.
Criminal records
According to the document, people who have been involved with the criminal justice system are disproportionately individuals with disabilities and people of color. Therefore, overbroad criminal records screening policies are likely to have an unjustified discriminatory effect.
“Research shows that these disparities cannot be simply attributed to certain groups committing more crimes and are better explained by biases in the criminal justice system,” the document states.
Register in advance for the workshop that will be provided on Zoom.
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