An apartment building in Alexandria, Virginia.
Photographer: Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images
For Tenants, AI-Powered Screening Can Be a New Barrier to Housing
Landlords who use algorithmic tech to perform background checks risk running afoul of fair housing laws, but companies say that these tools fight fraud and evictions.
The promise behind tenant screening technology is simple: By automating the process of sifting through apartment applications and performing background checks, landlords can quickly weed out prospective tenants they consider too risky to rent to — people with shaky finances, cloudy rental history or concerning criminal records.
By streamlining a lot of paperwork-intensive detective work, these computerized services — part of a flourishing field of real estate industry tools known as proptech — are billed as a means of cutting down on evictions, fending off fraud and reducing costs for owners and tenants alike.