The Lansing Chapter meeting of Nation Outside on December 12, 2004 included an event on landlord tenant screening tools. This informational and listening session was designed to first educate attendees about the problem of landlord tenant screening tools, describe what can be done about this issue, and then listen to people's personal stories of housing discrimination in the background check process.
Kristin Burgard spoke about what tenant screening tools are, how they are used by landlords, and how they negatively impact people who were formerly incarcerated. She stressed that this technology, like many others, is not always fair or accurate, nor does it solve the problem. She also spoke about the rights of those looking for housing.
Attendees included formerly incarcerated individuals and loved ones, a landlord, social workers who help the formerly incarcerated find housing, and the Director of Investigations of the Fair Housing Center of Southeast and Mid Michigan. During the discussion led by Trisha Washburn from Nation Outside, the formerly incarcerated attendees and the social workers shared their challenges in finding housing. The best solution for this right now is to develop personal relationships between landlords and social workers/formerly incarcerated people. A significant issue with tenant screening tools is they allow landlords to obtain information on criminal history before getting to know the individual, and criminal history can carry a lot of weight due to misperceptions. Going forward, education for all about the reality of recidivism and what makes for a good tenant versus the misperceptions regarding the formerly incarcerated is very important.
