Our Fair Housing Pledge

Every applicant and every tenant is welcome here

What We Believe

A home is the base for everything else in a person's life, and everyone deserves a landlord who is glad to see them apply. Location Properties is a locally owned Lawrence, Kansas company, and Lawrence is a university town, a commuter town, a retirement town and a first job town all at once. Individuals and families of every size and shape, students from every country, veterans, people of every faith, people with disabilities and people who have never rented on their own before all live on the same streets. That mix is exactly what makes this a good place to live, and our job is to give every one of those people the same fair shot at the same homes.

Inclusion in practice is simple: listen first, assume nothing, show everything that fits, apply the same written criteria to everyone, and let the numbers on the application decide. It is the law, it is the right thing to do, and it is also how we have kept tenants and owners for decades.

Our Pledge to You

  • We welcome you. Whoever you are and wherever you are from, we want to rent to you, and every home we list is open to you.
  • We give every person who asks about a home the same information: the same rent, the same deposit, the same availability date and the same next step.
  • We choose tenants on the written criteria in our application and nothing else: credit history, rental history, income, background and eviction checks, applied the same way to every adult applicant, in the order complete applications arrive.
  • We never base a decision on race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, familial status or disability, and we do not ask about any of them.
  • We count housing vouchers and other rental assistance as income, and we welcome families with children in every home we manage.
  • We provide reasonable accommodations for disabilities, we allow reasonable modifications to a home, and we treat assistance animals as what they are, not as pets, with no pet rent or pet deposit.
  • We write our listings so that everyone is welcome and no one is excluded, and we describe the home, never the kind of person who should live in it.
  • We make every effort to communicate in the way that works for you, including arranging an interpreter when we do not share a language.
  • We tell applicants and tenants about their fair housing rights and how to use them.
  • We keep informed about fair housing law and train every property manager and maintenance team member on it.
  • We document how each application was decided so the decision can be explained and checked.
  • We do not accept instructions from a property owner that would conflict with this pledge, and we do not tolerate non compliance from anyone on our team.
  • We learn about the people who are different from us and we celebrate those differences. They are what make Lawrence a good place to live.
  • We aspire to the spirit of the fair housing laws, not only the letter.

How Tenants Are Chosen

Every adult who will live in the home completes the same application and pays the same $30 fee, and every application is measured against the same list. These are the only things we look at:

  • A credit score of 650 or higher for every adult applicant (some owners require higher)
  • No charge offs to any creditor in the last 24 months
  • No evictions
  • No amount still owed to a prior landlord in the last 24 months
  • Household income of at least double the rent, with roommates able to combine and an approved co-signer able to add income; housing vouchers and rental assistance count
  • Rental history and references
  • Criminal, background and eviction checks for every adult household member

All complete applications for a home are reviewed against the same criteria, and the home goes to the highest financially qualified applicant with the best move in date, usually the soonest. If an application is declined, the reason is one of the criteria above, and we will tell you which one. The full requirements, including how to lift a credit freeze before you apply, are on our future tenants page and in the tenant FAQs.

Disabilities, Accommodations and Assistance Animals

If a disability means you need something done differently, ask. A reasonable accommodation is a change in a rule, policy or service, for example a reserved parking space, a different way to pay rent, or extra time at a showing. A reasonable modification is a physical change to the home, such as grab bars or a ramp, which you may make at your own expense with our written approval. Assistance animals, including service animals and emotional support animals with documentation of the need, are not pets: they are allowed in homes that do not otherwise allow pets, with no pet rent and no pet deposit. Send any request through the contact form or through your tenant portal, and we will answer in writing.

The Laws Behind This Pledge

Three layers of law protect you, and we follow all three in every listing, showing, application, lease and maintenance decision:

  • The federal Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 3601 and following), enforced by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, protects race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status and disability. HUD reads sex to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
  • The Kansas Act Against Discrimination (K.S.A. 44-1015 and following), enforced by the Kansas Human Rights Commission, adds ancestry.
  • The City of Lawrence Human Relations ordinance (Lawrence City Code Chapter 10), enforced by the Lawrence Human Relations Commission, adds sexual orientation, gender identity, age and ancestry.

Counting housing vouchers as income and welcoming assistance animals without pet fees are our own policies, applied to every home we manage.

Your Rights, and Who to Call

If you ever believe you were treated unfairly in housing, by anyone, these offices take complaints and it costs nothing to ask:

We would also rather hear about a problem directly, so we can fix it. Tell us through the contact form. Nothing you raise will ever count against your application or your tenancy.

Come As You Are

Tell us what you are looking for and anything that would make the process easier for you. Browse the homes available now, read the application requirements, and reach us through the contact form. Thank you for working with us.

See also our accessibility statement.