AI landlord screening tool will stop scoring low-income tenants after discrimination suit

SafeRent, an AI screening tool for landlords, has agreed to a $2.3 million settlement in a class action lawsuit alleging that its scoring system discriminated against Black, Hispanic, and housing voucher users. The lawsuit claimed that the system, which used factors like credit history to assign a score to potential tenants, was not transparent and disproportionately assigned lower scores to certain groups, leading to their rental applications being denied.

Under the five-year settlement, SafeRent will no longer display a tenant screening score for applicants using housing vouchers and cannot include a score when landlords use its “affordable” SafeRent Score model. The settlement money will go to Massachusetts-based rental applicants who used housing vouchers and were unable to secure housing due to SafeRent’s tenant score.

Key takeaways:

SafeRent, an AI screening tool for landlords, will no longer use AI-powered scores to evaluate potential tenants using housing vouchers, following a $2.3 million settlement approved by US District Judge Angel Kelley.
The settlement is a result of a 2022 class action lawsuit in Massachusetts, which alleged that SafeRent's scoring system disproportionately harmed Black and Hispanic applicants and those using housing vouchers, violating Massachusetts law and the Fair Housing Act.
Under the settlement, SafeRent will not display a tenant screening score for applicants using housing vouchers, and cannot include a score when landlords use its SafeRent Score model. The service also cannot display recommendations on whether to accept or deny an application if the applicant uses housing vouchers.
The settlement money will go to Massachusetts-based rental applicants who used housing vouchers and were unable to secure housing due to SafeRent's tenant score.

AI landlord screening tool will stop scoring low-income tenants after discrimination suit

Key takeaways:

Comments (0)

Newsletter