Unfortunately the kind of verbiage that ultimately gave rise to the EEOC Guidance on criminal records is now being thrown around in the tenant screening space. This is the third time in less than a year where presentations such as this have been made. This one was geared toward the Fair Housing section within the City of Tacoma and was delivered on 4/17/2012. The name of the talk is: “The Harder they Fall: How the indiscriminate use of unlawful detainer records in rental housing admissions causes a disparate impact on women, people of color, and families with children”.
Our concern should be clear… this is the same sort of ground swell at the local level as seen in the employment screening sector which ultimately lead up to the current situation. Make no mistake, the presentation was aimed at tenant screening and attacked the use of both eviction (UD records) as well as criminal data. The Tenant Screening community needs to discuss this development and create a strategy to address the concerns to avoid momentum building to more legislation.
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