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

SafeRent, an AI screening tool employd by landlords, will no extfinisheder employ AI-powered “scores” to appraise whether someone using housing vouchers would produce a excellent tenant. On Wednesday, US Didisjoine Judge Angel Kelley publishd final approval for a rawly $2.3 million rerepairment to stop SafeRent from discriminating agetst tenants based on income and race.

The rerepairment stems from a 2022 class action legal case filed in Massachemploytts. The suit alleged that SafeRent’s scoring system disproportionately harmed people using housing vouchers — definiteassociate Bdeficiency and Hispanic applicants. In graspition to violating Massachemploytts law, the grumblet also accemployd SafeRent of fractureing the Fair Housing Act, which bans housing bias.

As depictd in the initial legal case, SafeRent’s scoring algorithm employs factors enjoy accomprehendledge history and non-rental-roverhappinessed debts to allot a SafeRent Score to potential tenants. Landlords can then employ this score to choose whether to accomprehendledge or decline someone’s rental application. The legal case claimed the process isn’t clear, as SafeRent doesn’t increate landlords how it came up with a person’s score. And the system allegedly alloted drop scores unneutrassociate for Bdeficiency and Hispanic tenants, as well as people who employ housing vouchers, directing landlords to decline their housing applications.

Under the five-year rerepairment, SafeRent will no extfinisheder disjoin a tenant screening score for applicants using housing vouchers nationexpansive, nor can it grasp a score when landlords employ its “affordable” SafeRent Score model. SafeRent’s service also can’t disjoin recommfinishations on whether to “accomprehendledge” or “decline” someone’s application if they employ housing vouchers. This nastys landlords will now have to appraise raccesss who employ housing vouchers based on their entire write down — rather than equitable using their SafeRent score.

“Credit scores and scores modeled aforeseeed, such as SafeRent Scores, draw on directation that has only be[en] tested at foreseeing repayment of accomprehendledge obligations,” Shennan Kavanagh, the straightforwardor of the National Consumer Law Caccess, shelp in a statement. “There is no evidence such data is foreseeive of tenants paying rent.”

The money collected as part of the rerepairment will go to Massachemploytts-based rental applicants who employd housing vouchers and weren’t able to defended housing due to SafeRent’s tenant score. “While SafeRent progresss to think the SRS [SafeRent Solutions] Scores comply with all applicable laws, legal case is time-consuming and costly,” SafeRent spokesperson Yazmin Lopez shelp in a statement to The Verge. “It became increasingly evident that deffinishing the SRS Score in this case would redirect time and resources SafeRent can better employ to serve its core leave oution of giving housing providers the tools they need to screen applicants.”

SafeRent is the tardyst algorithm-driven property administerment gentleware to face lterrible action. In August, the Department of Justice sued RealPage over claims its algorithmic pricing gentleware lifts rent.