Property Owners/Managers are in the business of leasing quality rental housing to quality prospective residents. All applications are processed with the goal of extending an offer to lease, to qualified applicants. Unfortunately, not all applications can be approved.
HUD’s April 2016 Guidance to Housing Providers strongly states that no prospective resident may be automatically denied, due to the existence of a criminal record. HUD urges all Housing Providers to create and apply your written Resident Selection Criminal Records Criteria to each application. This includes creating and factoring your criminal records Matrix and conducting an Individualized Assessment (IA).
POEknows has created this Resident Selection Criminal Records Criteria for our clients to consider implementing.
If a prospective resident’s criminal record is a factor in your intent to not extend a lease, be certain to provide that applicant with the required Adverse Action Notification, which contains an invitation to the prospect, to take part in an IA.
The Adverse Action Notification conveys your intent to decline, based, at least in part, on a criminal history, and it also encourages the applicant to contact your designated Individualized Assessment Coordinator, so that denied applicant can participate in the IA.
POEknows has created the Matrix and the Individualized Assessment which we can conduct on every applicant for whom our clients intend to not extend a lease, due to a criminal record. The written criminal records Matrix, while not a part of the IA, is a valuable tool, used in addition to the IA. Whether conducted in-house by our clients, or conducted on our clients behalf, by POEknows, the Individualized Assessment, at the very minimum, will review the criminal background of the denied applicant and reassess the so-called Green Factors:
- the nature of the crime(s);
- the severity of the crime(s)
- when the crime(s) occurred.
Additionally, our IA Coordinator will also allow the applicant to present mitigating factors if he or she chooses to do so and allow members of the Community to offer supporting information.
POEknows……..making it happen!