Building a Fair and Just Tenant Screening System: Join us on October 23!
When an apartment becomes available, who gets to move in, and who doesn’t? Current tenant screening practices disproportionately exclude BIPOC applicants from housing opportunities and fail to support the stated objectives of landlords. While there is a rational business case to be made for the practice of tenant screening, there is limited policy, regulation, and guidance on how to screen potential tenants. Instead, landlords generally rely on readily available screening tools to make housing determinations. Additionally, commonly used and widely available screening criteria such as credit scores and criminal records are not necessarily correlated with an applicant’s future success as a tenant and frequently fail to predict successful tenancies. Persistent structural disparities in each level of this system disproportionately impact the rental reports of BIPOC applicants and have created a fair housing issue that our region has not fully grappled with.
Join us for part one (1) of a two-part event series to explore research and insights into the current state of tenant screening and inform our efforts to disrupt harmful and ineffective components, re-conceptualize risk, and improve housing access and outcomes for renters and landlords.
Monday, October 23, 2023
9:30-11:00 am
Virtual Webinar (Zoom)
Agenda:
9:30-10:30: Findings from the Field: Virtual Panel Presentation
Dive into current and emerging research on Tenant Screening practices, policies, and tools to explore their impact on landlords and renters. Featuring:
- Marina Gorzig (Mathematica) and Deborah Rho (University of St. Thomas) : The Impact of Renter Protection Policies on Rental Housing Discrimination
- Wonyoung So (Massachusetts Institute of Technology): Which Information Matters? Measuring Landlord Assessment of Tenant Screening Reports
10:30 – 11:00: Q&A , Thank You and Next Steps
