Tenant Screening

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What's happening?

The Olympia City Council has been working to address tenant protections since 2018. Council started efforts to reach out to landlords and renters in 2020 by hosting community meetings, online surveys, 1-on-1 interviews, and focus groups. Council considered input provided by community members to pass several tenant protection policies in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Staff provided an overview presentation about tenant screening practices and policy options at the Land Use & Environment Committee meeting on May 22, 2025 (view presentation). The Council would like to learn more about challenges in the tenant screening process and barriers to accessing housing in the screening process. They are seeking the community’s help to understand these issues, and the impacts on both landlords and tenants by gathering input from both to explore where common goals and solutions are possible.

Take one of the surveys below to share your feedback.

Why is this important?

The Olympia City Council is interested in exploring options to make housing more accessible for people who are low-income, formerly incarcerated, members of protected classes (such as people of color, people who were born outside the U.S., single parents, and people with disabilities), in accordance with Olympia’s Housing Action Plan and Thurston County’s Assessment of Fair Housing.

Tenant screening policies can include consideration of an applicant’s criminal history, credit history, eviction history, employment history, and income, among other factors. Screening policies can provide useful information that may help a property owner determine if an applicant has a history of paying rent and taking care of a rental property. However, some screening policies may be overly restrictive and not provide an accurate indication of whether someone will be a good tenant. Relying too much on restrictive screening policies without taking into account each person’s history and recent situation may screen out potential tenants.

Because of historical and ongoing discrimination in systems and practices, some people are harmed more than others by these screening policies. Data has shown that people of color are more likely to be convicted of crimes and incarcerated than white people, have less access to credit and lower average credit scores, and are evicted at higher rates than white people. This can lead to being screened out of housing opportunities. People who experience rejections of their rental housing applications may face housing insecurity and homelessness if they are unable to qualify for and access housing opportunities. People of color are over-represented in Thurston County’s homeless response system.

HUD released guidance in 2024 for housing providers to take into account these disparities in their tenant screening practices so they don’t unintentionally create more barriers to housing for people of color, people with disabilities, and others who are protected by fair housing laws.

Consider the following information:

  • In Washington State, Black people are arrested for drug offenses at twice the rate of White people, despite consistent findings that Black and White people use and sell drugs at similar rates.

  • Policies that curb rejection of applicants due to criminal history may prevent homelessness and recidivism. Formerly incarcerated people are almost 10 times more likely to be homeless than the general public. People with unstable housing were up to seven times more likely to re-offend.

  • Almost 30% of residents in low-income neighborhoods in the U.S. are credit invisible, meaning they have no credit score.

  • More than 50% of White U.S. households have a FICO credit score above 700, compared with only 21% percent of Black U.S. households.

  • Eviction court records are often unreliable, as they often do not include information about the outcomes and basis of the case; including cases that were dismissed, cases where the tenant won, cases where tenants are evicted for no fault of their own, or where they were evicted due to an underlying domestic violence issue where the tenant is the survivor.

  • The national eviction filing rate for adults living with a child was 10%, double the risk for adults living without children (5.0%).

  • Black or African American and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander tenants were involved in eviction proceedings in Thurston County at nearly three times the rate of their proportion of the population.

Next steps

The Olympia City Council will receive a briefing on these issues at a study session on September 16. Community feedback received from the surveys below will be provided to Council for their consideration. Surveys closed on August 8.

What's happening?

The Olympia City Council has been working to address tenant protections since 2018. Council started efforts to reach out to landlords and renters in 2020 by hosting community meetings, online surveys, 1-on-1 interviews, and focus groups. Council considered input provided by community members to pass several tenant protection policies in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Staff provided an overview presentation about tenant screening practices and policy options at the Land Use & Environment Committee meeting on May 22, 2025 (view presentation). The Council would like to learn more about challenges in the tenant screening process and barriers to accessing housing in the screening process. They are seeking the community’s help to understand these issues, and the impacts on both landlords and tenants by gathering input from both to explore where common goals and solutions are possible.

Take one of the surveys below to share your feedback.

Why is this important?

The Olympia City Council is interested in exploring options to make housing more accessible for people who are low-income, formerly incarcerated, members of protected classes (such as people of color, people who were born outside the U.S., single parents, and people with disabilities), in accordance with Olympia’s Housing Action Plan and Thurston County’s Assessment of Fair Housing.

Tenant screening policies can include consideration of an applicant’s criminal history, credit history, eviction history, employment history, and income, among other factors. Screening policies can provide useful information that may help a property owner determine if an applicant has a history of paying rent and taking care of a rental property. However, some screening policies may be overly restrictive and not provide an accurate indication of whether someone will be a good tenant. Relying too much on restrictive screening policies without taking into account each person’s history and recent situation may screen out potential tenants.

Because of historical and ongoing discrimination in systems and practices, some people are harmed more than others by these screening policies. Data has shown that people of color are more likely to be convicted of crimes and incarcerated than white people, have less access to credit and lower average credit scores, and are evicted at higher rates than white people. This can lead to being screened out of housing opportunities. People who experience rejections of their rental housing applications may face housing insecurity and homelessness if they are unable to qualify for and access housing opportunities. People of color are over-represented in Thurston County’s homeless response system.

HUD released guidance in 2024 for housing providers to take into account these disparities in their tenant screening practices so they don’t unintentionally create more barriers to housing for people of color, people with disabilities, and others who are protected by fair housing laws.

Consider the following information:

  • In Washington State, Black people are arrested for drug offenses at twice the rate of White people, despite consistent findings that Black and White people use and sell drugs at similar rates.

  • Policies that curb rejection of applicants due to criminal history may prevent homelessness and recidivism. Formerly incarcerated people are almost 10 times more likely to be homeless than the general public. People with unstable housing were up to seven times more likely to re-offend.

  • Almost 30% of residents in low-income neighborhoods in the U.S. are credit invisible, meaning they have no credit score.

  • More than 50% of White U.S. households have a FICO credit score above 700, compared with only 21% percent of Black U.S. households.

  • Eviction court records are often unreliable, as they often do not include information about the outcomes and basis of the case; including cases that were dismissed, cases where the tenant won, cases where tenants are evicted for no fault of their own, or where they were evicted due to an underlying domestic violence issue where the tenant is the survivor.

  • The national eviction filing rate for adults living with a child was 10%, double the risk for adults living without children (5.0%).

  • Black or African American and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander tenants were involved in eviction proceedings in Thurston County at nearly three times the rate of their proportion of the population.

Next steps

The Olympia City Council will receive a briefing on these issues at a study session on September 16. Community feedback received from the surveys below will be provided to Council for their consideration. Surveys closed on August 8.

  • CLOSED: This survey has concluded.

    Renter and community service provider survey

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  • CLOSED: This survey has concluded.

    Landlord survey

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Page last updated: 23 Oct 2025, 09:34 AM