Housing: Checking Prospective Renters

We would like to clarify the concerns of Mary Jean Stewart’s letter of Jan. 26 (“Errors Cited in Selecting Renters”), which states that our rental practices for working families are discriminatory and concludes that we could legally be renting to the Manson family.

Of course we don’t plan to discriminate against prospective households on the basis of their source of income or family constitution. However, we do have very strict selection criteria for all applicants. We review credit checks, eviction checks, landlord references, employer references and personal references. If the tenants have passed these reviews, we conduct an interview and follow it with a home visit to their existing apartment. While we speak in general terms of providing housing for working families, Ms. Stewart is correct in noting that all prospective tenants would still be eligible provided that they comply with all of our selection criteria.

Regarding the Manson family, I suspect we might have rejected their application on the grounds of personal references, previous landlord references or income certification which requires tax returns, payroll stubs and bank account statements.

DAVID KRAMER

Housing director

Venice Community Housing Corp.