you shouldn't be doing background checks on new hires!

I read the Boston Globe everyday for the news and to give me the liberal brain-food perspective for my left-leaning/right-leaning/paradoxical mind.  I found this article interesting a few weeks ago.  Or maybe disturbing is more the emotion?

HUD, which is not known for being a bastion of operational efficiency, under any leadership for the past 20 years, and especially under Julian Castro (highly regarded as a VP prospect for this year) has come out with guidelines now, that say that as a landlord, you cannot make a requirement for no criminal record, as a condition of renting.

The HUD logic goes, that since a disproportionate share of the adult population with a criminal records are blacks or Hispanics, that to make this a condition of refusal to rent if having a criminal record, is . . in itself  . . .racial discrimination.   The continued logic is that, since more blacks or Hispanics as a % of the population, might have criminal records than whites, then, more lacks or Hispanics than whites will be denied housing.

No landlord who is receiving any government subsidized rent, can make this a condition now.    And while private landlords may still make this a condition, they will be opening themselves up for a federal lawsuit by the denied applicant, on the grounds of a civil rights violation.

I am not a landlord.   I do not have to worry about being impacted by this.  It does however, in my mind, provide an insight into how we might see hiring regulations influenced in the future.   I could easily see that this Washington logic could be extended to say that employers could no longer screen employment applicants for a criminal record, since to do so would racial discrimination.   Whether it is policy now, or not, though, I think it does not bode well for any company that currently does criminal background investigations on new hires.    The precedent has been set and the line drawn in the sand.     Checking backgrounds on an applicant for criminal records is an invitation to a civil rights law suit.

that's my ideas.    take them for what it's worth.   If you have any friends/associates who are in the rental business, you might want to forward this to them?

Bud

ps.   HUD also now has a policy that no employee of HUD can be terminated for any reason except for behavior where they were convicted criminal behavior by a court of law.   duh!   Any job performance failure must just be given a reprimand.  But no person hired by HUD can be screened for past criminal behavior.A