Ask an expert: Jasmine Rangel on how cities can use tenant screening protections to increase housing affordability and stability

Results for America’s Solutions Accelerator team partnered with PolicyLink, National Housing Law Project, National Consumer Law Center, TechEquity, and Upturn for Unlocked: Opening the Door to Housing Access Through Tenant Screening Protections. This learning series provided teams of government leaders and community partners with the knowledge, tools, and strategies needed to design and implement policies that prevent the harms of eviction records and tenant screening practices—and expand access to affordable housing.

In this Q&A, the Economic Mobility Catalog team spoke with Jasmine Rangel, Senior Associate at PolicyLink and a key expert partner in the Unlocked sprint. In this edited interview, Jasmine shares her insights on how tenant screen protections can benefit marginalized groups and promote access to safe and affordable housing.

What are Tenant Screening Protections (TSP)?

Tenant screening practices often determine who has access to safe and affordable housing — and who does not. Approximately 90 percent of landlords rely on screening tools to scrutinize the rental, income, credit, and employment history of prospective tenants. These tools, however, are far from neutral, and routinely create barriers for millions of renters, especially those with eviction records, lower incomes or credit scores, and criminal histories. Worse still, the records are often unreliable, inaccurate, and lack context—yet they can permanently mark renters as “high risk” and lock them out of safe and stable housing.

Tenant screening protections (TSP) are laws, regulations, and policies designed to push back against this exclusionary system. They restrict how landlords and property managers can evaluate prospective tenants, often by limiting or outright prohibiting the use of background information like criminal records, eviction records, or credit history in the decision-making process.

These measures aim to reduce discriminatory barriers to housing and ensure that applicants are not unfairly rejected due to a past eviction, financial hardships, or other factors unrelated to their ability to be reliable tenants. For instance, eviction filings are not proof of wrongdoing and can remain on a person’s record even when a case was dismissed. Credit scores frequently reflect systemic inequities, medical debt, or temporary financial crises rather than someone’s ability to pay rent on time. Criminal background checks often include outdated or irrelevant information, disproportionately impacting people of color.

What are the most crucial components for an effective TSP policy?

TSP policies need to be expansive and should apply to as many units as possible. We do have to navigate the reality that some federally subsidized units are bound by federal screening rules, but outside of those exceptions, the local coverage should be comprehensive to maximize protections.

The strongest TSP policies automatically seal eviction records once filed, restrict public access to certain information or from being sold to third party vendors, and provide a low threshold for tenants to seal their own records. We also need to regulate the background check products and processes that landlords use. This means mandating transparency, imposing shorter "lookback" periods so old records don’t count against you, and prohibiting blanket bans on applicants with criminal records. I would also prioritize enforcement by ensuring that a TSP policy has a clear oversight body with the capacity and resources to enforce the law and follow-up on complaints.

Public engagement is a huge part of TSP because we need to make sure people know their rights. Increasing awareness of tenants’ rights during the screening process and the pathways they have for asserting those rights is essential to make enforcement meaningful.

It’s also important to measure the impact of TSP policies. Regular evaluations of TSP can help keep key government offices accountable to enforcing the law and can help produce recommendations for strengthening the policies. Making evaluation findings public through dashboards, public reports, and stakeholder briefings helps build public trust and ensures that tenants are aware of their rights.

Who are some key partners to bring together to create an effective TSP policy?

Primarily, tenant associations, community-based organizations, and other housing justice advocates can drive grassroots campaigns, build public support, and advocate for strong eviction record sealing laws and tenant screening protections.

Elected state and city officials have the power to propose and pass TSP legislation. Legislative champions may be motivated both by strengthening tenant protections and by curbing the influence of unregulated algorithmic technologies and tenant screening products.

Legal service providers help tenants identify when their rights have been violated and pursue remedies — whether through private right of action cases, complaints against landlords, or challenging consumer reporting agency practices in court.

What are some effective ways organizers have engaged tenants?

Organizers have used a range of strategies to engage tenants in advancing TSP policies based on different community contexts. Some jurisdictions have conducted surveys and collected tenant testimonies. Others have used tenants rights workshops, where tenants learn about the issues in the screening process and their rights under current federal, state, and local laws. Many places also have connected advocating for tenant screening protections with broader housing reforms like rent stabilization or eviction right to counsel.

In Philadelphia, for example, formerly displaced tenants and tenant organizers successfully co-wrote a City Council resolution in 2020 calling for eviction record sealing, which inspired the formation of a coalition of more than 45 groups working to address the harms of eviction records. This coalition centered the leadership of directly impacted tenants and emphasized racial, gender, and economic justice in its advocacy. Their efforts led to the passage of the Renter’s Access Act in 2021, which requires transparency in rental screening criteria, prohibits blanket rejections based on eviction or credit histories, and mandates individualized review of applications. By reframing how eviction records are used, the Act is both a housing stability measure and a tool to reduce housing discrimination.

How do you measure success for a TSP policy?

Prioritizing robust and regular evaluations is crucial since TSP policies are often described as a negative right, meaning they protect tenants from certain harms like being denied housing based on eviction history. As a result, it’s challenging to measure the success of policies that stop something from happening in the first place.

Jurisdictions can assess effectiveness using process metrics like the number of sealed eviction records, landlord disclosure compliance rates, timeliness of enforcement, and outcome metrics such as fewer housing denials, improved stability, decreased repeat evictions. Quantitative data should be disaggregated by race, gender, income, and disability to show if protections impact vulnerable tenants. Qualitative evaluations (surveys, interviews, focus groups) offer insights into tenant experiences, including their ability to access safe, stable housing.

What’s something in the field happening now (or recently) that you’re excited about?

Across the country, tenants are calling for stronger tenant screening protections and eviction record sealing policies to bolster long-term housing stability. Since 2020, over 19 jurisdictions across the country have passed tenant screening protections and five additional states and local jurisdictions are actively considering TSP policies (as of 2025). Momentum is also growing through collective initiatives like the recent Tenant Screening Protections sprint, where 24 cross-sector teams of advocates, organizers, policymakers, and social service providers came together to share knowledge and build strategies for advancing reform. It’s especially encouraging to see policymakers across the political spectrum recognize that screening practices are exacerbating the housing crisis and take action on policies that expand access to safe, stable and healthy housing for tenants of all backgrounds.