Where can a felon find an apartment ???

Where can a person that has a felony find an apartment?

Please advice asap !!

There are plenty of places where you can rent from someone who doesn't do a detalied background search. Most of the time, the landlord is only interested in your credit history and ability to pay rent and not your criminal history. If you have done yor time and/or completed probation or parole, some states allow you to petition to have the conviction expunged or reduced to a misdemeanor if sufficient time has passed.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Where can a person that has a felony find an apartment?

Please advice asap !!

Where can an Ex-felon get help finding an apartment? - Yahoo! Answers

How to Rent an Apartment With a Felony

By Irene James

If you are looking for an apartment, one of the things you can expect is for the management at the leasing office to conduct a credit check and a criminal background check. In the last 10 years, this practice has increased and even become controversial as some apartment offices are accused of downright discriminatory behavior. Nonetheless, the practice of running background checks has become more widespread as technology makes it easier. Today, a leasing office manager need not conduct make any phone call as all the background information on a prospective tenant is easily and readily available online at the touch of a button. If you have a misdemeanor criminal conviction, chances are you may still sail through a criminal background check because most apartment managers are actually looking for felonies and this is where it gets tricky. Can someone with a felony conviction get approved for an apartment?

A felony conviction is deemed much more serious than a misdemeanor and can actually result in a denial of an apartment or other housing where a criminal background check is conducted. There are many kinds of felonies but apartments are mostly concerned with those that involve:

Violence
Sex
Drugs

These three types of felonies are deemed serious enough for an apartment management to deny you housing. But is there hope? If you are currently looking for housing and have a criminal felon y conviction, the first thing you need to do is come clean beforehand. Do not wait for the apartment manager to pull the record but rather, inform him or her of the existence of the record. This can be even more effective when you write, in your own words, the circumstances surrounding the conviction. In many cases, this gesture can cause you to be approved.

Another way to gain approval would be to come with a number of references. These should be people who are reputable in the community, such as the local sheriff or fire Marshall, the local pastor or bishop, elected official or other prominent character. These references should state that they know you and that they attest to the fact that you are now a responsible individuals and the episode that surrounded your conviction is a thing of the past and is not likely to recur.

Finally, if you have a felony conviction, many apartments are willing to overlook it if it something that happened in the distant past. They tend to frown at recent convictions and will be lenient on cases that occurred years ago as long as there has not been any recent incidences.

People with felony convictions can also secure housing by approaching private landlords. While some do conduct criminal background checks, many do not.

Irene James is an internet expert specializing in credit issues and has been helping disadvantaged families and individuals who have credit or criminal histories find housing. Visit how to be approved for an apartment with a criminal record and bad credit for more details.

Article Source:

Irene James - EzineArticles.com Expert Author

How to Rent an Apartment With a Felony

[zingo]

Immediately, you can get a bed in a homeless shelter. Most large cities have them. In my city, you can stay 3 months at a time. Then move to the next shelter and stay 3 more months there. In cold climates, they are more crowded, but in the summer time, many homeless people like to sleep outdoors. You also get fed twice a day. And you can use their phones to look for a place to rent. They usually have counselors to help you find a job.

The next stage might be to rent a room. Landlords that divide their building up into individual rooms rentals are used to renting to less stable people (because a really stable person with a good income will rent a full apartment). Be truthful with the landlord. Be faithful about paying the rent, and he will give you a good recommendation when you are ready to rent a full apartment.

Now you have a good rental history and a good recommendation, a job, and an income. So you can rent an apartment. If a landlord turns you down because of a background check, then he has to give you a copy of the information from the background check-- Then you can write to the background check agency and explain the good things and minimize the bad, and correct any errors. Fair Credit Reporting Act is the law that requires the landlord to give you a copy of a bad report. Any landlord should know about this law, because he can get a big fine if he does not comply.

Also, the big 3 credit reporting agencies must send you a copy of your own credit report for free, if you ask for it (once per year). The big 3 credit reporting agencies are Experian, Equifax, and Transunion.

The local library or the homeless shelter will have computers so you can search the internet for room and apartment rentals.

Been there, done that. It worked. Good luck.

Zingo said, "If a landlord turns you down because of a background check, then he has to give you a copy of the information from the background check-- Then you can write to the background check agency and explain the good things and minimize the bad, and correct any errors. Fair Credit Reporting Act is the law that requires the landlord to give you a copy of a bad report. Any landlord should know about this law, because he can get a big fine if he does not comply."

Sorry Zingo, that information is incorrect. The Fair Credit Reporting Act law deals with CREDIT reports only, not background checks which are public information. The two are not the same. Credit reports require the applicant's signed release to obtain and must be given a report based on denial for items contained within. LL's must send a denial report is denied for CREDIT items.

Background checks are checks of criminal and civil court histories which are puiblic information. These can be pulled from various internet sites. These reports do not require an applicant's permission to pull and do not require a denial disclosure form. They are public information and anyone can see them, including LLs, employers, neighbors, and anyone who desires the info. Denying for criminal (criminal record) or civil (evictions or judgements) history is not the same as denying for credit report items (collections, poor credit, no credit).

[zingo]

Respectfully, I will disagree.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act has credit in the name, but it applies to landlords, employers, and credit offers. It gives tenants and job applicants the right to know what is reported about them. And it requires landlords and employers to get the applicant's permission before the landlord or employer purchases a background search . If they just do the research on their own, they do not need to get the applicant's permission.

You are confusing credit reports and background reports. Credit reports contain financial information and a LL must send a denial letter if an applicant is denied based on something in that financial report. (That's why it's called the Fair CREDIT Reporting Act.) A background check is not the same thing as a credit report. It only contains criminal and civil data, not financial records of payments. Sometimes, you can purchase both reports from the same company, but they are completely different reports. You do not need to puchase a background report. This information is public information and can be obtained from many internet sources for free. Very few LLs buy this report. (Why, when they can get it for free?) So long as the LL obtains the information in this matter, no denial letter need be sent on the obtaining of public information. Credit reports are not public information and must require a signature showing permission to obtain. No permission is needed to obtain public data. Anyone (employers, LLs, neighbors, etc.) can pull this information up from any court website, and from many national databases for no cost whatsoever. You only have to type in the individual's name, DOB, SSN, or Driver's license number (depending on the database requirements). You can obtain free public information on all criminal (felony) and misdemeanor offenses, civil judgements, divorces, moving vehicle offenses, former residences, bankruptcies, civil litigation cases, personal injury cases, etc. All this info is free public information and is covered under the freedom of information act and the amendments of the consitution. No report need be sent for this.

But getting back to the poster's question, although he has probably long since found housing, there are several strategies as in Irene's article. The best way is to let the prospective LL know of the crime and the circumstances surrounding it. (LLs are not all hard a$$e$, they are capable of understanding too.) But if you don't find one who is, look for a private individual who does not do criminal background checks, instead of a large complex which probably does them routinely.

This is great for the short term but it is a travisty that individuals who have paid for their crime with time from their life should be denied housing

Originally Posted by zingo

Immediately, you can get a bed in a homeless shelter. Most large cities have them. In my city, you can stay 3 months at a time. Then move to the next shelter and stay 3 more months there. In cold climates, they are more crowded, but in the summer time, many homeless people like to sleep outdoors. You also get fed twice a day. And you can use their phones to look for a place to rent. They usually have counselors to help you find a job.

The next stage might be to rent a room. Landlords that divide their building up into individual rooms rentals are used to renting to less stable people (because a really stable person with a good income will rent a full apartment). Be truthful with the landlord. Be faithful about paying the rent, and he will give you a good recommendation when you are ready to rent a full apartment.

Now you have a good rental history and a good recommendation, a job, and an income. So you can rent an apartment. If a landlord turns you down because of a background check, then he has to give you a copy of the information from the background check-- Then you can write to the background check agency and explain the good things and minimize the bad, and correct any errors. Fair Credit Reporting Act is the law that requires the landlord to give you a copy of a bad report. Any landlord should know about this law, because he can get a big fine if he does not comply.

Also, the big 3 credit reporting agencies must send you a copy of your own credit report for free, if you ask for it (once per year). The big 3 credit reporting agencies are Experian, Equifax, and Transunion.

The local library or the homeless shelter will have computers so you can search the internet for room and apartment rentals.

Been there, done that. It worked. Good luck.

Sorry, but convicted criminals aren't a protected class of people. LLs are free to deny on criminal history. The recidivism rate is too high and too big a liability to risk tens or thousands of dollars of our hard earned money and property on the chance that you won't re-commit a crime. Keep out of trouble and in a short time you should have no problem finding a place.