Unlocking Our Housing Futures: Tenant Screening and Fair Housing - May 2, 2023

Unlocking Our Housing Futures: Tenant Screening and Fair Housing May 2, 2023 Presented by: Natasha Duarte, Project Director, Upturn Rasheedah Phillips, Director of Housing, PolicyLink Mariah de Leon, Research Associate, Upturn Jasmine Rangel, Senior Associate, PolicyLink PolicyLink Presentation 2 Welcome! PolicyLink Presentation 3 Agenda: ● Overview of tenant screening and fair housing issues ● To. [...] ○ 2016: 1 in 17 renters faced an eviction filing ● Discriminatory experiences in the background check process PolicyLink Presentation 8 Impacts of discriminatory tenant screening On someone’s housing search process: ● Cumulation of burdensome rental application fees (already expensive enough) ● Compromise valuable time On someone’s long-term housing outcomes: ● Forced into unaffordable housing ● F. [...] PolicyLink Presentation 16 About the Tenant Screening Request for Information (RFI) PolicyLink Presentation 17 Tenant Screening RFI PolicyLink Presentation 18 Tenant Screening RFI PolicyLink Presentation 19 What do these agencies do? The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) takes action against businesses when they enga. [...] For example, they fined tenant screening company AppFolio because it was including criminal and eviction records in tenant screening reports without checking to make sure they were matched to the right person and didn’t contain errors. [...] PolicyLink Presentation 20 What information are they asking for? ● Information and experiences from all stakeholders, including tenants, landlords, tenant screening companies, and advocates; ● Information about how tenant screening works and how it impacts people’s access to housing, such as: ○ What information do tenants receive about how they will be screened, or about why they were rejected? ○.