Trouble Renting & Don't Understand Why, Check Your 'Tenant Screening Score': ProPublica

[appalachiablue]

'Have You Had Trouble Renting an Apartment and Don’t Understand Why? It Might Be Your Tenant Screening Score.' ProPublica, July 15, 2021. Did a tenant screening company, such as LeasingDesk, On-Site, Credco or RentGrow, send you a score or report? We want to understand their effect on tenants.

Have you had trouble renting an apartment and don’t understand why? It might be your tenant screening score, which landlords use to figure out whether to rent to you or how much to charge you for a security deposit. These are also sometimes called artificial intelligence, or AI, scores.

ProPublica is examining concerns about tenant screening. We spoke to one tenant who had an “excellent” credit score rating of 788 out of 850 with no criminal history or eviction records. A tenant screening company gave that same tenant a score of 685 out of 1,000 — about 68% or the equivalent of a D grade. Because of that score, the management at an apartment building wanted to charge the tenant an extra month of rent in their security deposit.

Did a tenant screening company, such as LeasingDesk, On-Site, Credco or RentGrow, send you a score or report? You may have received it by email or some other way. Did you get denied for an apartment or were you asked to pay a higher security deposit based on your score? Have you worked for a tenant screening company? Please fill out our brief questionnaire...

https://www.propublica.org/getinvolved/have-you-had-trouble-renting-an-apartment-and-dont-understand-why-it-might-be-your-tenant-screening-score

[jmbar2]

1. Creepy panopticon

I just did a google search "How do I check my tenant score?"

One company advertises that it helps you select tenants who can best handle regular rent increases. This is not a good trend. Access to any type of dwelling is becoming completely controlled by corporate algorithms.

No wonder so many people are homeless.

[appalachiablue]

2. AI growth, esp. into human affairs: 'Surveilled,

Sentenced in court, and Fired by AI.' It's no surprise that dehumanization, reducing people down to a numerical score is also utilized in the housing industry. The rapid rate of all of this raises serious issues about the the welfare of society...

- 'The AI we should fear is already here,' Wash. Post, July 2021,

Alarm over the rise of artificial intelligence tends to focus too much on some distant point in the future, when the world achieves Artificial General Intelligence. That is the moment when — as AI’s boosters dream — machines reach the ability to reason and perform at human or superhuman levels in most activities, including those that involve judgment, creativity and design...
More, https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016297487

[jmbar2]

3. I wish that the intellects behind tech had more ethics

Just because you can create something doesn't mean that you should.

[appalachiablue]

4. Amen, ethics and awareness of the

human and moral issues. There's a lot of positives, esp. re advances in medicine, but we'll see how other major aspects develop. Happy weekend.

[Ron Obvious]

5. Sounds like a step towards Chinese-style Social Credit

Only legislation could stop this kind of thing I imagine.