The Neighborhood Context of Felony Record Exclusion: How Local Conditions Shape Landlord Screening & Neighborhood Quality Implications

• In Event: 20401 - Incarceration and the Long Shadow of Punishment

Abstract

Criminal background checks have become a routine aspect of tenant screening in recent decades. Despite concerns expressed by some policymakers and advocacy organizations that such screenings may result in de facto racial discrimination because of marked racial disparities in justice system contact, rejecting prospective tenants based on their criminal history is legal in the vast majority of the country. 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 (when applicable) 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. 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, this paper explores how neighborhood-level context moderates the extent of discrimination individuals with felony convictions face in the rental housing market and how such discrimination shapes the quality of neighborhoods accessible to individuals with felony convictions compared to those without. Preliminary findings reveal significant variation along multiple dimensions of neighborhood advantage, indicating that the response rate gap is larger in more advantaged neighborhoods. Our findings, thus, suggest that landlord screening tends to sort individuals with felony records into the most disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Authors

• Brielle Bryan, Rice University

• Seth A. Williams, Louisiana State University