Better background checks sought for public housing

Erin Neff

Friday, Dec. 18, 1998 | 11:19 a.m.

Metro Police officials told housing authority representatives Thursday there should be no problem establishing additional background checks on prospective public housing tenants.

The meeting was prompted, in part, by a similar policy already being used by the North Las Vegas Housing Authority and North Las Vegas Police Department, and came on the heels of a Las Vegas Sun report examining the issue.

"I could be way out in left field, but this doesn't seem like a hard problem to solve," said Capt. Rick Bilyeu of Metro's Information Services Bureau.

Las Vegas Housing Authority Commissioner Dewain Steadman has been trying for months to establish a policy similar to that used in North Las Vegas.

In North Las Vegas, when you apply for public housing, the police run a check of your name through a state law enforcement clearinghouse, and are thus able to determine if the applicant has been convicted of a felony anywhere in the United States.

The checks currently done for both the Las Vegas and Clark County housing authorities by Metro can tell the housing authorities only if the applicant has committed a crime within Metro's jurisdiction.

As such, convicted rapists, kidnappers and murderers could have been granted public housing next door to poor, but law-abiding citizens trying to raise families.

When the housing authorities initially tried to implement similar policies, they were met with resistance from both internal policies and Metro response.

Thursday's meeting proved both sides are willing to establish a working policy.

Arlene Ralbovsky, director of Metro's Police Records Section, said the housing authorities need to establish an Originating Agency Identifier (ORI) with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which allows them indirect access to a criminal history.

With the ORI, Metro can run a person's name in the law enforcement clearinghouse computer and learn whether that person has been convicted of a crime. Metro, by law, can only tell the housing authority that there is a "hit," but is not able to divulge the nature of the conviction.

"All you can tell us is 'Yes or No,' and that's what we're asking you for," Steadman said.

It is then up to the housing authority to ask the person to supply fingerprints before the FBI can conduct a more thorough check.

In North Las Vegas, nearly 75 percent of applicants don't return when they are asked to supply a fingerprint, even though the housing authority does not reject all convicted criminals for housing.

Karen Stratton of the Clark County Housing Authority said that many of her agency's background checks come back showing some type of criminal conviction.

"We're all here for the same reason," Bilyeu said. "We want public housing to be safer."

The Clark County and Las Vegas housing authorities will now get the necessary ORIs from the FBI and supply them to Metro. Metro, in turn, will establish internal procedures regarding the handling of such record requests from the housing authorities.

Both the city and county housing authorities send Metro between 400 and 500 requests per month, and Bilyeu wanted to make sure he has the staff to handle the additional requested information.

The additional checks are tentatively scheduled to begin in early January.

"I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel here and it's not that long a tunnel," Bilyeu said.