I know the person that has the concern in this case; and have discussed this with her via email. I have seen her resident selection plan and have suggested directly to her that it is too broad and needs to be refined in such a way as to not leave any room for interpretation for the applicant, nor any wiggle room for judgement calls for her. This plan needs to be refined for not only criminal backgrounds; but also credit histories. I have suggested that she include statements like:

'We are unable to accept applicants with felony charges that include: sex crimes, drug sale or manufacture charges, violent crime, or weapons charges within the last 10 years. Any applicant still on probation must supply the name and contact information of their probation officer.'

'We may be able to overlook drug use charges under the following conditions: 1) Applicant must have completed any court ordered rehabilitation, satisfied all fines, and paid all restitution. 2)If the court has ordered ongoing therapy or support services; applicant must continue to be in compliance.'

'Other misdemeanor charges will be taken on a case by case basis'

An example of an acceptable history for credit background issues might be:

'We are unable to overlook unpaid evictions less than 10 years old, paid evictions less than 5 years old; or monies owed to other properties without payment arrangements that can be verified as being in compliance. We are also unable to overlook unpaid monies to any utility provider without documentation of a payment plan in place.'

'We must overlook medical or student debt'

'We cannot overlook a credit to debt ratio greater than 70% and no more than 5 line items as unfavorable'.

'Due to the curent economic crisis, we can overlook a closed bankruptcy, or foreclosure; but will require either a co-signer or an additional deposit of $x'

All potential criminal and eviction matches are reviewed to ensure you as the applicant match the resulting information.

Judgement calls like what she is asked to make are a slippery slope filled with potholes of potential fair housing claims.

Part of our jobs as managers is to do what we can to protect the owner from the potential of fair housing complaints. I am not saying that one will occur as a result of this situation or not; just that she must do what is necessary to protect the owner from his own bad decisions. Since it is apparent that the owner is refusing the advice of such protection; she needs to do what she can to protect herself from inclusion in any fair housing claim and potential court award in the matter.