What we check
- Credit — not just the score. A 620 with no housing-related derogatories reads very differently from a 680 with a prior eviction.
- Eviction history across Texas court records.
- Criminal background, assessed individually rather than as a blanket bar, which is what HUD guidance on the subject requires.
- Income verification against a stated multiple of rent. For voucher holders the calculation is different, because the tenant portion is what matters, not the full contract rent.
- Rental history — we call previous landlords. Current landlords sometimes give a glowing reference to move a problem along; the one before is usually more candid.
Applied the same way every time
Written criteria, applied identically to every applicant, is both the fair-housing requirement and simply the way to make good decisions. Discretion applied case-by-case is how bias creeps in even when nobody intends it, and it is how landlords end up on the wrong side of a complaint.
On voucher holders specifically: a housing voucher is
not a credit score. Screening a voucher applicant on the same income multiple as a
market-rate applicant misunderstands the arithmetic — the authority pays the
larger share directly and on time. The income test should be applied to the tenant's
portion. Managers who do not understand this reject perfectly good tenants.
What we do with a marginal application
Not every decision is clean. Where an application is borderline we come back to you with the specifics and a recommendation rather than either rejecting quietly or approving and hoping. It is your asset; a marginal call is yours to make with good information in front of you.