This article examines the challenges that the contemporary political economy of rental housing poses for new efforts to regulate tenant screening using antidiscrimination law. I draw on a case study of landlord practices in Seattle, Washington, where policy makers have been on the forefront of legal efforts to regulate how landlords screen and select rental applicants in the face of an acute housing crisis. The case study investigates tenant screening and selection practices from the divergent perspectives of the targets and intended beneficiaries of new fair housing regulations, using forty-six in-depth interviews with spokespersons or experts from the rental housing industry, independent landlords and property managers, and renters with criminal, eviction, and/or damaged credit histories. I use these data to examine how landlords’ discretionary decision-making and responses to regulation are shaped by the broader legal, institutional, and economic context in which they operate. The findings illuminate how a “landlord’s market” amplifies the power imbalance that is characteristic of landlord-tenant relations, exacerbates the housing access problems posed by the proliferation of background checks, and frustrates new legal efforts to dismantle screening-related barriers to rental housing.

中文翻译：

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“我们完全主观”：房东市场中的自由裁量权、歧视和租户筛选

本文探讨了当代租赁住房的政治经济对使用反歧视法规范租户筛选的新努力带来的挑战。我借鉴了华盛顿州西雅图的房东实践案例研究，政策制定者一直站在法律努力的最前沿，以规范房东在面对严重的住房危机时如何筛选和选择租赁申请人。该案例研究从新公平住房法规的目标和预期受益人的不同角度调查租户筛选和选择实践，对租赁住房行业的发言人或专家、独立房东和物业经理进行了 46 次深度访谈，以及有犯罪、驱逐和/或信用记录受损的租房者。我使用这些数据来研究房东的自主决策和对监管的反应如何受到他们经营所在的更广泛的法律、制度和经济环境的影响。调查结果阐明了“房东市场”如何放大了房东与租户关系所特有的权力失衡，加剧了背景调查激增所带来的住房准入问题，并阻碍了消除与筛选相关的出租住房障碍的新法律努力。