Tenant Screening Webinar

Running credit checks and obtaining other background information are critical components of the tenant screening process. Making mistakes can be costly. We are doing business in an increasingly regulated and litigious society. Attention to detail matters. Proper handling of consumer information matters. Knowing your responsibilities and your legal obligations matters. Find out about the current laws regulating the resident screening process and make sure you are complying with your legal obligations as a recipient of consumer information.

• Goals of background screening • Laws that govern background screening (CFPB, FTC, FCRA, ECOA, FACTA) • Creating a screening process • Federal “Red Flag” Rule • Consumer credit data • Eviction data • Criminal data • Credit check fees & required receipts

Contemporary Information Corporation Date: Thursday, February 25, 2021 Time: 10–11:30 a.m. Location: Zoom Webinar Cost: $20

tinued extensions of federal eviction moratoria. NAA Chairman Mike Holmes and member Travis Sheets, Vice President and General Counsel at BH Companies, led a meeting with White House officials to emphasize the need for emergency rental assistance, discuss concerns around the CDC eviction requirements and urge them to issue supplemental guidance to make it easier for rental housing providers to operationalize the new policy. Our concerns were heard and, in October, the CDC issued guidance to address many of the industry’s concerns. First, property owners could access the courts during the period of the order, were not required to notify residents of these protections and it was made clear that the validity of residents’ attestations could be challenged in court, thus continuing the courts role as a neutral arbiter. While there continues to be inconsistent enforcement of the order around the country, this development was a step in the right direction.

Finally, the Presidential election came, went and we had a new Administration on the horizon with an entirely different set of goals as it related to housing. Based on their respective campaign platforms for President, we have some sense of the philosophy of President-elect Biden and VicePresident-elect Harris on housing. I believe we can expect their support on efforts to reduce barriers to construction and reforming the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program. We will disagree on issues like source of income protection and resident screening. As with any new Administration, NAA has already started discussions with the transition team about our priorities, their objectives and where we can work together.

True to form, Congress only completed their negotiations on a COVID package two days prior to Christmas. But, in classic 2020 style, the President announced shortly after that passage of the bill that he was disappointed in it. It did not have enough in direct stimulus payments to individuals and had too much foreign aid (this was part of the annual federal appropriations package which rode along with the COVID relief legislation and was negotiated between the Administration and Congress). After several days of high drama, the President ultimately relented and signed the legislation.

Of greatest importance to the apartment industry, the COVID bill contains emergency rental assistance in the amount of $25 billion that goes directly to housing providers and is eligible for both future rent and rent arrears. This should be invaluable to owners and operators who have gone many months without rent due to the eviction moratorium, especially small housing providers who are barely hanging on. The current Treasury Department and the transition team for the Biden Administration are now working on guidance for the program, and we expect dollars to start flowing in February.

As in any negotiation, the bill has trade-offs, including a 30-day extension of the CDC order on evictions. While not ideal, this is much shorter than what was originally proposed by the activist community. Any extension is not entirely surprising given the resurgence of spread of COVID-19 and the worsening economic displacement. Our hope is that now that emergency rental assistance is finally flowing, future moratoriums can be avoided.

The advocacy work by the apartment industry in 2020 culminated in a major victory with the $25 billion emergency rental assistance program. This is a tangible victory. Not so tangible but as important is the power of our grassroots advocates who mobilized every time we asked, even during a pandemic. We must maintain and harness that energy for future battles — and there will be many — when the voice of the industry will be critically needed once again.

Our grassroots mobilization also helped us secure another intangible victory — an acceptance by policymakers the needs of residents and housing providers are on equal footing. That will be extremely important looking ahead to discussions around additional funding to replenish what was lost to housing providers because of the federal eviction moratoria.

Washington D.C. has changed dramatically from 2020 to 2021. Most prominent is the Democratic Party’s control of the White House and both chambers of Congress. This will mean a more challenging environment in several areas for the apartment industry but also opportunities for success in others. To be successful in this new environment, NAA must expand our place in the conversation. We have to bring solutions to the nation’s housing challenges, not simply say “NO!” to proposals with which we do not agree. Moreover, we must continue to be an honest broker of information, experience and data for policymakers and their staff.

It is also important to note that there has been an evolution on issues like eviction and housing affordability. These concerns and others like resident screening and ex-offender reentry are now part of larger debates around health care equity and social justice. We fully anticipate a rise in federal, state and local efforts to impact laws in these areas that are adverse to the rental housing community. NAA is devoting substantial, additional resources to support the work of our affiliates in their campaigns around these issues. Taken together with the lessons we have learned and the advocates we recruited to the cause in 2020, NAA is well positioned for success. Every affiliate and member can and should be part of that effort too. Only together can we win.