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Committee considers 'Fair Chance in Housing' limits on criminal-history screening
Summary
SB 937 would require landlords to provide upfront notice of disqualifying offenses, evaluate income/credit/references before deep criminal-history review, and limit look-back windows for certain offenses; sponsors and advocates argued it supports reentry and public safety, while landlords and data vendors urged technical fixes and raised enforcement and fiscal concerns.
Sen. Shinnick Henson presented Senate Bill 937 to establish a staged tenant-screening process that gives applicants with criminal records a clearer path into housing while allowing landlords to evaluate creditworthiness and other rental qualifications first. "This is why it's called Fair Chance in Housing: it simply gets a person their foot in the door," the sponsor said, describing a two-step process: an upfront notice of certain disqualifying offenses, an initial screening on income/credit/references, and then a deeper criminal-history review only for applicants who pass the first stage.
The Senate amendments carve out owner-occupied properties and smaller landlords (the bill generally applies to landlords owning five…
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