Page 2 / March 2003 Owners Update

Question of the Month - Does TMHA Screen Tenants

The short answer is NO, we don’t screen tenants for tenancy. That is the right of you the Owner. In fact, TMHA WANTS YOU TO SCREEN PROGRAM TENANTS. We know that out of say 10 Voucher holders who apply to you for a unit, some may not be good tenant material, so it is your right to use screening procedures that meet Fair Housing guidelines to choose an acceptable tenant.

To explain further, TMHA DOES screen families for eligibility - which means that they are income eligible and that they have passed our screening procedures for violent criminal and drug-related crimes. Under our procedures, we WILL give you information to help you with your tenancy screening, IF YOU ASK US FOR THE INFORMATION.

We can tell you:
* the family’s current address,
*the name and address of the family’s current and prior landlord, if we know it,
*factual information in the family’s file about tenancy history matters, or about drug trafficking or violent criminal activity by family members.

Checking with a prior landlord(s) is a well known procedure used in screening. However, we increasingly hear that prior landlords sometimes are reluctant to give information for fear of suit from the tenant. Sometimes, how one asks for the information is key. A prior landlord may not be willing to elaborate on whether they considered a tenant as “good” or “bad,” but may be willing to give a simple yes or no answer to the question, “Would you rent to this tenant again?” If the answer is No, that would be a clue to screen that tenant carefully.

One screening method we have had landlords report using, is visiting the current unit of a prospective tenant to see how the current unit is being kept up. The only caution about this method is that owners need to be consistent in using it so as to avoid a claim of discrimination. If you visit the unit of a mother and three kids, you also have to visit the 72-year old widow.

One piece of information owners want to know is the timeliness of rental payments. Remember that a tenant who has had trouble making rent consistently but was otherwise satisfactory, may be a great tenant for you under our program with rental assistance. That Voucher we issue to them is money in the bank for you. If they don’t pay their part of the rent under our program, our advice is to evict them. You expect them to pay their share, and so do we.

TMHA Construction Project Gets Underway in March
If you pay a visit to the TMHA office this Spring you will surely notice construction activity being undertaken. Due to the need for more office space to effectively serve our tenants and landlords, a west addition is being added to our building. This new addition will provide additional offices, a new conference room area as well as a utility room and new restrooms. TMHA has been working with MKC. Inc. who are providing the architectural services for the project. Raber’s Construction of Sugarcreek will be serving as the General Contractor for the addition. TMHA staff looks forward to the completion of this office addition in early summer as it will enable us to better serve client and landlord needs.