US tenant blacklist seen putting homes out of reach for the poor

New York

AFTER two years of being homeless, napping in stores open all night and more recently staying in a convent in Harlem, Margot Miller found out in March that her luck was about to change: She had qualified for an apartment for low-income older adults.

"This is to inform you that a rental unit has become available," the letter from the building's owner, Prince Hall Plaza, began.

Elated, Ms Miller, 68, said that she immediately went to the building's office to claim the apartment. But after a background check, she said, the building reversed course. "I go there; I'm all excited. The woman there then does something on the computer. Then she said, 'You can't have this.'"

Ms Miller was disqualified, the woman told her. Not because of her credit score. (At 760, hers was stellar.) And not because of a criminal record. (She had none.) Ms Miller had another factor, it turned out, working against her: She had been sued in housing court by her landlord. That was enough to land her on something known among housing advocates and lawyers as the tenant blacklist, which is compiled by tenant-screening database companies from h…