No Sex Offenders -

I was reading an article this morning about Sex offender's and the laws against them or for them.  Now, being a mother of two - I do not have an open mind about this issue at all.  There is a website called FamilyWatchdog.com and it can give you an exact amount of how many registered sex offenders live in your area.  Now in 11357 zip code, there are 501 offenders residing here. 

There are alot of two family homes that are in 11357 and surrounding areas, so that means that this is a great area for rentals.  So, does a landlord have the right to deny an apartment to a registered sex offender? The answer is YES, IF you have children residing in or in close proximity to the apartment OR if there is a school within 2 blocks of the apartment then you can deny the applicant the apartment.  As a landlord, it is very important to run a credit report - but in addition to just a credit report you should run a criminal record report, which will point out a sex offender.  If you do not have access to running one, then contact me - I can. 

Getting back to the article in the Times Ledger, it states that  "The New York City Housing Authority is funded in part by federal tax dollars and federal law prohibits allowing convicted sex offenders to live in public housing".   The article also states that "everything must be done to keep the offenders away from children for the rest of their lives". 

UPDATED:  11/15/2006: A recent article in  Newsday.com, has an article about new laws being added this year.  In addition to Offenders not being allowed near schools, parks, beaches they are fighting to add bus stops. 

Comments

[Maureen Francis]

I am a landlord myself. One of our rentals is half a block from a school/church. I'd never thought of screening a tenant that way, and I don't know if Michigan allows it. Something to investigate.

[Christine]

Maureen - this is a must for any landlord. I have a property that I was going to lease and rant the credit/criminal history on the prospective tenant and it came up. I had the right to decline the applicant. I have children, there are kids that live on both sides of the home and there is a school 2 blocks away. This is a tough and sad situation, but I have to protect others first. You should check out your laws. I could actually do 100's of posts about the ny law.