The county is currently considering adding language to allow discrimination against such people, according to a May 19 report from the Wisconsin State Journal. Specifically, the ordinance would say that landlords can turn away prospective tenants based on criminal history if the crime was related to housing and “a reasonable person would have a justifiable fear for the safety” of the property or other tenants.
Is this language fair, or should landlords be free to adopt their own criminal history policies without fear of housing discrimination claims? Madison, which is the seat of Dane County, bars landlords from discriminating against people with a criminal record if their record is more than two years old. Is this sensible?
What do you think?
Interesting to note:
"Criminal arrest/conviction" is not a protected class under the Fair Housing Act or under any state's fair housing law.
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9 comments:
Landlords are already protected against this type of discrimination lawsuit, because criminals are not a protected class. Discrimination does not conform to Christian values, which made this country great. Therefor, criminals should be made a protected class.
For me, I should say that criminals are to protected against housing discrimination. They too have the right not to be discriminated by anyone.
There should be specific time limitations and specific classes of crime involved. If someone was convicted of injury to personal property because they broke a car window when they were 17 years old, and it is now more than 15 years later with no further convictions, should that incident be used to deny them housing?
I don't believe criminals should be discriminated against unless it is a very recent and maybe violent offense. When you leave a criminal without a home you are basically asking them to commit another crime like theft or robbery because they have to have a place to live and they have to eat and sleep just like everyone else. Make sense? I applied at an apartment that said I was allowed one misdemenor offense in the past 5 years I met those specifications and they still denied me. They said that they could deny anyone they wanted to for any reason so they can deny you just because they don't like you. Better pitch a tent guys.
majarity of the landlords are a bunch of thiefs anyway so I say this if u have a criminal history an u are trying to change u should get a chance if they don't give it then make sure that when u are robbing or buglerizing make sure u are doing it to the people that are putting u in the street that makes it even.
This just happened to me. I applied for a duplex and had a marijuana charge in 2005. Since then I have held one job for five years and am now a corporate manager. I was shocked to receive an email stating that I was denied for my criminal record. I have not done anything illegal in years and am not a child any longer. I think that there should definitely be a law to help those who changed their lives to for the better of themselves and the community. Receiving this notification made me feel as though I can never be a normal part of society due to my past mistakes.
When you commit a crime there are consequences (that's why momma said to be a good boy/good girl.) Being disturbed about how your arrest/criminal activity is now affecting you is like being mad at the fire for burning you when you stuck your hand in it. Or blaming the teacher when you didn't study for your test and then failed it. Each action has a consequence. If it didn't, what would stop us from continuing the bad behavior?
The question I have is. What about those who were charged to later have it dismissed? I have a a place that wants to deny me housing due to a charge that has long been dismissed without conviction. I find this a major issue since in my local we have a police force that will charge anyone with anything.
I'm currently having the same problem with being discriminated against due to criminal charges that were dismissed. I was arrested when I was 18, the charges were dropped when I was 21, and now I'm 24 and looking for housing once again and got denied by two communities so far due to the dismissed charges.
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