Homelessness has been a much discussed and much misunderstood problem confronting our urban and rural communities throughout America as well as any other parts of the world. Estimates of the number of homeless people in the United States range from a low of 300,000 to several million. The problem increased dramatically in the United States during the 1980s as nearly seventy-five percent of the resources allocated by the federal government for low-and moderate-income housing were slashed. Other factors cause homelessness too. Floods, fires tornadoes, earthquakes, and hurricanes, which are clearly beyond our control, also put people out of these homes. The way we respond to the homeless is well within our control, however. Other causes of Homelessness, such as displacement as a result of war, redevelopment, zoning,code enforcement, highway and airport construction, are well within our control from their inception.

The largest and fastest growing segment of the homeless population is single-parent families with children. Another primary factor affecting low-and moderate-income families with children is the failure of state and local governments and the private sector to adopt policies and priorities that would insure maintenance of an adequate supply of decent, affordable housing for those who need it. A related dimension of homelessness is the condition of substandard quality of their housing is often unsafe or unhealthy. Interacting with people who are actually homeless will probably not be feasible for most families unless you visit a shelter at night or make some guesses about individuals you see along the street. Imagine what life must be like for the people who live in it.

Believe it or not, but some people will pay less attention to the identity and references of their tenants than they normally do before letting some plumber in to their house. Such negligence can have serious repercussions. At times, the tenant may turn out to be a guy with a criminal background (or even worse, someone associated with a terrorist outfit) or a plain bully, making it hard for you to collect monthly rent on time or increasing rent when it’s due. Needless to say, it’s quite hard to force these tenants to leave once you’ve let them in. On the other hand, something as simple as contacting the tenant’s previous landlords and inquiring about the tenant can save you from innumerable troubles in the future. However, that’s not the only check you need to perform, there are many others such as checking bankruptcy records, criminal record check, liens & judgments, credit history or checking in the list of registered sex offenders.

You can start from doing some verification from their previous landlords, employer or neighbors. Don’t write off this background screening process as being overly-vigilant, there’s nothing wrong in protecting you and your property from the troublemakers or miscreants of any kind. in a way that it accumulates all of the required information about the tenants including their identification, whereabouts, rental history, employment details and credit history. Do not start verifying the information for each of these applications though; you should only check those applicants that you have short listed.

Pay special attention to the person who doesn’t appear local, ask and verify for the reason of moving into that specific area. However, all of this verification or screening process should be carried out on non-discriminatory basis and solely for your own satisfaction. You should also inform the tenant that you will verify the information provided by them, remember there are various laws protecting the tenant’s rights. An honest tenant should have no issues with all of this screening; in fact the vigilance of landlord will leave a good impression on them. Do not set inflexible standards though, for example, you may not be ready to compromise on criminal background or incessantly bad credit history, however you can consider becoming a little lax on requisites like family size.