Our findings point to an urgent need for policy interventions to address the potentially exclusionary impacts of tenant screening services.

These criteria, applied universally to both voucher and non-voucher applicants, may exclude approximately one in ten voucher holders, despite the guaranteed rent support they receive through public assistance.

Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, we find that although voucher holders typically meet rent-to-income thresholds, thanks to the subsidies that reduce their rent burden, they still face significant barriers related to credit scores, bankruptcy history, and debt.

In total, we gathered 1,227 unique tenant screening criteria. These criteria can be explored using our interactive visualization at: open-tss.net/en/screening....

To estimate the effects of income- and credit-based tenant screening on the HCV program, we first collected tenant screening criteria documents from property management websites and their Content Delivery Networks (CDNs).

While such screening practices may have influenced the HCV program's implementation, their impact has remained largely understudied.

This work began after we came across a troubling webinar from a tenant screening company that discussed “how to reject voucher tenants.” The presenters claimed that landlords could still reject tenants with vouchers by using their screening service.