Contexts of Felony Record Exclusion: How Neighborhoods Shape Landlord Screening with Implications for Neighborhood Quality

• In Event: Impacts of Criminal Legal Contact

Abstract

Criminal background checks have become a routine aspect of tenant screening in recent decades. Small-scale audit studies have demonstrated that individuals who disclose a conviction record receive fewer callbacks from landlords and realtors, but how such discrimination varies across cities and is moderated by other individual and neighborhood characteristics is not yet known. To explore these dynamics, we sent over 30,000 emails in response to Craigslist rental housing ads posted in 40 metro areas between October 2022 and September 2023, varying the race, gender, age, marital status, parent status, felony conviction status, and age of conviction of individuals inquiring about units. We find that that inquiry emails disclosing a felony conviction are returned at a significantly lower rate than those that make no reference to a conviction and that when responses are received, those with felony convictions are far more likely to be told that units are unavailable. However, the gap in response rates between felony- and non-felony condition emails varies widely across cities and by neighborhood characteristics. Using information on the rental unit location embedded in Craigslist ads we explore how neighborhood-level demographics, local housing characteristics, and state-level policy context moderate the extent of discrimination individuals with felony convictions face in the rental housing market. We draw on American Community Survey data on neighborhood characteristics, as well as high-resolution proprietary data on localized rental dynamics (RentHub), property ownership and valuation (Verisk), building disinvestment (Builty), neighborhood resource access (SafeGraph), and spatial access to employment (WageScape) for our analyses. Preliminary findings reveal significant variation along multiple dimensions of neighborhood advantage. We also examine the characteristics of neighborhoods that individuals with felony convictions have access to relative to individuals without conviction histories.

Author

• Brielle Bryan, Rice University
  Presenting Author