The fair housing law was created to protect people from being discriminated against because of their race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, familial status and disability. Property management can’t deny someone housing based on any of those eight items. When providing tours, leasing agents are not allowed to mention the “type of people” living on the property, including age ranges, gender ratios and whether or not the property houses many families.
When someone chooses to rent an apartment, if convicted of a crime, they are denied housing unless five years have passed since the disposition of the misdemeanor. This does not, however, include sex offenders. The law prohibits using sex offender registry information as a reason to deny housing.
It feels like we are more concerned with fixing criminals than we are with protecting the innocent. Just because a sex offender has been dormant for a certain amount of years does not mean they are not fantasizing about your little sibling or child when walking past. Biological psychology is not an excuse to ruin people’s lives.
If a landlord suspects a tenant is a risk to the safety and well-being of the entire property, they have the option of proceeding with eviction. The eviction process is timely. Unless the resident is an immediate danger or threat, the eviction process lasts two weeks. The idea that a situation has to escalate to dangerous levels before immediate action is taken is yet another reason why sex offenders should never be given the opportunity to cause a disturbance in the first place.
Property management is a business that makes a profit by providing a home for people. If profit was the only incentive, renting an apartment to everyone and anyone, so long as they pay rent on time, would be the only thing that mattered. But property management is also a people-oriented business. Providing a safe environment for residents within their four walls should be a right, not a privilige. The government shouldn’t interfere with how property management companies screen their residents. Furthermore, it should stop protecting the very people who we need protecting from.
Another problem is not all sex offenders involve children! Often times it is an ex or so to be ex, who gets a conviction. An their life is ruined…
I’m tired of all the negative talk about sex offender’s. By not renting to them eventually is going to cause a lot bigger problem than they have right now.1.what is going to happen to them if they can’t find housing? There’s only one thing left the streets ? Sleeping under the bridges, vacant houses abandoned buildings! Come on people use your heads
Agreed. Just about everyone knows a sex offender weather they are aware or not. The U.S. not only has the most sex offenders of any country we also have the strictest laws. Hud already discriminates against families with a sex offender member. It makes it very difficult to find affordable, safe housing. You can be charged with a sex offense for grabbing a girls butt in a dance club. Even worse if that girl got in on a fake I.d. and is underage. Urinating in public is also a sex offense if someone sees you and claims you were exposing yourself. Both of these are all too real cases and probably could have been fought by a good paid attorney for a better outcome but the legal system has a way of forgetting about the people involved and just focusing on the dollar signs. Public defenders get paid by the state regardless of the outcome. The prison system and halfway houses get more government funding if they house more inmates. Criminal justice has become very profitable. This explains why the U.S. has more incarcerated citizens than any other country in the world.
Love how people treat sex offenders like they are witches that should be burned alive, grow up people, you’re not living in the dark ages