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A halfway house is supposed to be just that — a place where people who have made mistakes can land "half way" between their difficult pasts and better futures. They are not permanent options.

But a recent Star Tribune story described challenges facing Artiste Mayfield, a Minneapolis woman who was once incarcerated but has turned her life around and is ready to leave halfway-house-like housing. After her release from prison, she earned an associate's degree, got a job and moved into a nonprofit-operated apartment for recovering addicts. She's paid rent and been on the straight and narrow for eight years, yet she still can't get a regular apartment due to her criminal history.

There has to be a better way. For renters with troubled pasts who demonstrate they have become productive members of society, there should be opportunities for second chances. With that in mind, a group of local nonprofits is wisely evaluating rental eligibility options. Four of the Twin Cities' largest nonprofit landlords are conducting a first-of-its-kind study, thanks to a $75,000 grant from NeighborWorks America.

Mayfield is far from alone in her predicament. The U.S. Department of Justice reports that 100 million people, or about one-third of all American adults, have arrest records (with or without convictions), old financial problems or other negative marks on their rental records. And now more than ever, landlords can easily access that information and use it to reject applications.

A healthy society cannot afford to have that many people become chronic "unrentables.'' Without options for decent housing, homeless ranks will swell and fuel a permanent underclass of social-service dependents.

Certainly there are good reasons for rental applicants to be screened, and for some to be denied. Many landlords tell horror stories about how tough it can be to evict problem renters. Yet some unscrupulous landlords take advantage of low-income tenants, fail to properly maintain their properties or deny applications in blatantly discriminatory ways.

In fact, guidelines issued in April by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development say that landlords run the risk of violating federal fair-housing rules if they deny housing to those with a criminal history — if the denial has a disparate impact on individuals of a particular race, national origin or other protected class.

With the wide range of landlord-tenant experiences, it would be helpful to have more data. Researchers could ask questions such as: Should a bad check written 15 years ago prevent a landlord from renting to someone whose record has been good since then? Are probationary rental periods possible to give tenants a chance to prove themselves and give landlords greater flexibility to evict?

The nonprofits — Aeon, CommonBond Communities, Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative and Project for Pride in Living — want to gather the information, in part, because they realized that even they make rental decisions that aren't based on research. Together, they own and manage 10,000 affordable units in the metro area and western Wisconsin. They want the study to help guide their own rental policies and give other landlords more tools to re-evaluate renter screening.

"We are looking to screen in, as much as we can, vs. screening people out," said Lisa Wilcox-Erhardt, CommonBond's executive vice president of housing and services.

Achieving that goal would help give a boost to people who are committed to rebuilding their lives and help landlords make legal and ethical decisions.