Locked out of Place: A 40-City Audit Study of Housing Discrimination Against People with Felony Convictions

• In Event: Criminal Legal System and Other Societal Institutions: Open Call Paper Session

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, I sent over 30,000 emails in response to Craigslist rental housing ads posted in 40 metro areas between November 2022 and October 2023, varying the race, gender, age, marital status, parent status, felony conviction status, and (when applicable) age of conviction of individuals inquiring about units. I 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. I find relatively little variation in response rates across race, but I do find evidence that the size of the response rate gap is moderated by age and age of conviction. Moreover, the gap in response rates between felony- and non-felony condition emails varies widely across cities and by neighborhood characteristics.

Author

• Brielle Bryan, Rice University