Over the past few years, there has been a swing in the perception of felons as renters. Part of that change has been due to Fair Housing concerns of disparate impact, and now we are seeing real-time changes to company screening criteria.

We recently released our 2018 Resident Credit Screening Research Report (free download), and one of the questions asked whether the responder accepted felons at their communities. The “yes” answer changed little, from 6% to 8%, but the “Yes, but only after a certain number of years” answer saw a dramatic change over the past two years, from 39% in 2016 to 57% in 2018. Clearly, our industry is becoming more comfortable with the idea of accepting felons, as long as the felony occurred a certain distance in the past.

We also asked, “Do you differentiate between violent, non-violent, and sex offenses in the screening process?” In this case, we saw a clear trend towards reviewing the offense on a case by case basis rather than painting all felonies with the same brush. There appears to be an attempt to identify non-violent offenders and offer more lenience relative to a violent offender.

It will be interesting to see how companies assess these changes after they obtain more data about past felons who now live at their communities.

Update:  After publishing this blog, Anne Sadovsky sent me a message with several relevant notes.  She said it would be ok to share here:

1. Companies should be using third party for running applications.These companies are up to par on the laws. Properties screening themselves is a quick way to get in trouble.
2. When the application is run, whomever does it, run the credit, rental history, employment first. They may not even have to deal with criminal if they screen out on other necessary areas.
3. Taking it case by case puts us in apposition of being the psychologist, judge and jury, even doctor. We are not qualified to determine each case. It is sad that we are put in that position.
4. My attorney friends have made it pretty clear that the length of time since an offense does matter. Many have taken the stance that if the crime against persons, manufacturing or sale of drugs, arson within 7 years it is a no go. Sex crimes no matter when can be denied.
   This is one of our stickiest issues.