Obama forces political-correctness on landlords

In What You Must Know BEFORE Becoming a Greedy Landlord, I included a section on tenant selection. I wrote:

Most people are honest and hardworking. And I’d venture to say that 96 percent would be terrific tenants. But you need to screen them all to sort out the 4 percent who are potential problems. 

My biggest concern is getting stuck with a tenant who has a history of destroying previous rentals or not paying the rent. And I tell them upfront that if this type of thing shows up, the deal is dead. The tenant pays the background-check fee and gets it back if they pass.

If you are a landlord or plan to buy a rental property, you should know that you cannot base tenant selection solely on race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin or disability.

Now the Obama administration says that refusing to rent to someone with a criminal record could be a form of intentional discrimination and could get you in legal hot water.

First, the facts

As many as 100 million U.S. adults — or nearly one-third of the population — have a criminal record of some sort. Our prison population of 2.2 million adults is by far the largest in the world. As of 2012, the U.S. accounted for only about five percent of the world’s population, yet almost one quarter of the world’s prisoners were held in American prisons.

African Americans and Hispanics are arrested, convicted and incarcerated at rates disproportionate to their share of the general population. Across all age groups, the imprisonment rates for African American males is almost six times greater than for White males, and for Hispanic males, it is over twice that for non-Hispanic White males.

Now, Obama’s rationale

President Obama and HUD have concluded that based on the above facts, criminal records create barriers to housing that are likely to have a disproportionate impact on minority home seekers.

What all this means, as I interpret it, is that if you exclude someone because of a prior conviction, you must be able to prove that it was necessary to achieve a substantial, legitimate, nondiscriminatory interest. What’s more, you must apply the same standard to rental applicants of all races and colors.

You can read HUD’s April 4, 2016, guidelines regarding the use of criminal records for landlords here.

The sad thing is that this has nothing to do with fixing our broken criminal justice system or the fact that there are too many attorneys running around lose.

It’s simply shoving political correctness down the throats of hardworking Americans who invest their time and money to provide a decent home at a fair price for others to live.  

And Congressman Dan Donovan (R-NY) thinks it’s wrong, too. He blasted HUD’s guidelines in an April 26, letter to Secretary Julian Castro. You can read it here.

The bottom line is that I can deal with someone who has had problems with the law. Everyone deserves a second or third chance. But whether I rent to them should be a decision I make based on what the background check reveals and my gut instincts … not what Obama and Washington bureaucrats determine is correct for my business.  

Landlord disgusted with Section 8 housing

An Omaha landlord tried to help by renting to tenants who get assistance from the Omaha Housing Authority, but those tenants left his property a mess and the government won't help clean it up. Now he’s fed up. (You can read the full story here.) You can’t blame him. However, if he had understood the rules of Section 8 housing, as I point out in What You Must Know BEFORE Becoming a Greedy Landlord, he might not have found himself in this pickle. 

The Housing Choice Vouchers Program (Section 8) is the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s primary program to provide housing for Americans who are living in poverty, as well as the elderly and disabled.

People who receive Section 8 vouchers find their own rental housing and use the vouchers they receive from their housing agency to help pay the rent. Basically, the voucher means that the Federal Government will pay a specific amount of the rent directly to the landlord.

Ultimately, it is the voucher holder's decision whether to rent your property. And as the landlord, you would screen the Section 8 voucher holder just as you would any other prospective tenant.

The advantage of renting to these tenants is that HUD guarantees you’ll receive part of the rent. Most Housing Authorities deposit the check directly into your account. And if the tenant can’t pay their portion because of a financial hardship, the government will make up the difference. Still, if the tenant is simply trying to stiff you for their portion of the rent, you’re on your own to collect.

Simply put, just because they are on a government list doesn’t mean they’ll be good tenants. It just means they have Section 8 vouchers.

For more ideas on buying and managing rental properties, pick up a copy of What You Must Know BEFORE Becoming a Greedy Landlord. It’s available in paperback and Kindle formats at Amazon. You can also order it from Barnes & Noble, Booklocker, iTunes, and kobo. 

Why these landlords are dropping Section 8 housing

In What You Must Know BEFORE Becoming a Greedy Landlord I included this paragraph regarding Section 8 housing:

“On the surface, the main disadvantage I see is that you’ll have to deal with government bureaucracy to receive and maintain approval. The PHA in your area will inspect your property to make sure it complies with HUD’s Housing Quality Standards (HQS). And they must inspect it at least annually.”

Some landlords in the Columbus area see that as a disadvantage, too ... so much so that they’ve pulled out of the program. 

Click here for the full story.