Doctoral Dissertation Research: Tenant Screening in the Information Age: Implications for Housing Access

博士论文研究：信息时代的租户筛选：对住房获取的影响

• 批准号: 1636961
• 负责人: Katherine Beckett
• 金额: $ 0.88万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-07-01 至 2018-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1636961&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Tenant; Screening

SES-1636961Katherine BeckettAnna ReostiUniversity of WashingtonThis project investigates the implications of modern background screening procedures for rental housing access and discrimination in the Seattle metropolitan area. In recent years fair housing advocates have raised concerns regarding the potential discriminatory impacts of the shift toward more information-intense screening practices in the private rental housing market, which utilize commercial background search tools to examine applicants' criminal, credit and eviction histories. In response to such concerns, policymakers in some U.S. jurisdictions have recently made calls to regulate how background check information is used to evaluate rental applicants, particularly with respect to criminal records. In contrast to the employment sphere, few scholars to date have investigated whether and how modern background screening procedures in rental housing provide new opportunities for discrimination, or explored how relevant actors on the ground, such as landlords and tenants, understand such issues. In an effort to remedy those gaps, this dissertation project investigate tenant screening practices from the dual perspectives of rental housing providers and renters who have recently applied for housing. Interviews with renters who have moved within the last six months will identify understudied impediments to housing access, particularly for renters with discrediting background characteristics such as criminal histories, past evictions and/or damaged credit. That knowledge may help fair and affordable housing advocates and social workers in their efforts to improve rental housing access. Interviews with a group of landlords meanwhile will illuminate what motivates those respondents? approaches to screening applicants and help call attention to institutional dynamics that could frustrate legal reform efforts to advance equity in housing access by regulating background screening practices (e.g. fears of financial liability that discourage landlords from renting to applicants with criminal records). These interviews will be conducted in the wake of the recent release of legal guidance from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) instructing private rental housing providers that policies which categorically exclude applicants with criminal records could run afoul of the Fair Housing Act, and in a metropolitan area where a campaign to "Ban-the-Box", or regulate criminal history screening in housing, is currently underway. As such this research should make a timely contribution to ongoing policy ongoing discussions around how to ensure that tenant screening procedures do not unnecessarily jeopardize fair and equal access to rental housing. This study is also poised to make important contributions to multiple bodies of academic scholarship, including the sociological literatures on the collateral consequences of a criminal record, and socio-legal work on anti-discrimination law in action.

SES-1636961 Katherine BeckettAnna Reosti华盛顿大学本项目调查了现代背景筛查程序对西雅图大都市地区出租房屋准入和歧视的影响。 近年来，公平住房倡导者对私人租赁住房市场转向信息密集型筛选做法的潜在歧视性影响表示关切，这种做法利用商业背景搜索工具来审查申请人的犯罪、信用和驱逐历史。 为了回应这些担忧，美国一些司法管辖区的政策制定者最近呼吁规范如何使用背景调查信息来评估租房申请人，特别是在犯罪记录方面。 与就业领域相反，迄今为止，很少有学者调查租赁住房中的现代背景审查程序是否以及如何提供新的歧视机会，或探讨当地的相关行为者，如房东和房客，如何理解这些问题。 为了弥补这些差距，本论文项目从租赁住房提供者和最近申请住房的租房者的双重角度调查租户筛选做法。 与过去六个月内搬家的租房者进行访谈，将确定未充分研究的住房障碍，特别是对于有犯罪史、过去被驱逐和/或信用受损等令人不快的背景特征的租房者。 这些知识可能有助于公平和负担得起的住房倡导者和社会工作者努力改善租赁住房的获得。 与此同时，对一群房东的采访将阐明是什么激励了这些受访者？审查申请人的方法，并有助于提请注意可能阻碍法律的改革努力的体制动态，这些改革努力通过规范背景审查做法（例如，担心财务责任而不鼓励房东将房屋出租给有犯罪记录的申请人）来促进住房机会的公平。 这些访谈将在住房和城市发展部（HUD）最近发布的法律的指导意见之后进行，该指导意见指示私人租赁住房提供商，明确排除有犯罪记录的申请人的政策可能违反《公平住房法》，并且在一个大都市地区，目前正在开展“禁止盒子”运动，或规范住房中的犯罪历史筛查。 因此，这项研究应及时促进正在进行的政策讨论，即如何确保租户筛选程序不会不必要地损害公平和平等获得出租住房的机会。 这项研究还准备为多个学术机构做出重要贡献，包括关于犯罪记录的附带后果的社会学文献，以及关于反歧视法的社会法律工作。