One of the most important tasks you need to accomplish when you leave prison is finding a safe place to live, but searching for an apartment for felons in Dallas TX with a conviction in your past isn’t easy.
And a felony conviction can continue to cause problems for many years because most apartment complexes carry out background checks – and having a felony, even if it’s an older conviction, often results in rejection.
But we’re here to give you some pointers which will hopefully make your efforts successful when you search for housing for felons in Texas.
How To Find An Apartment For Felons Dallas TX 2024
When you’re looking for an apartment that rents to felons in Dallas TX, there are some ways to find landlords more likely to overlook your criminal history.
But before you strike out on your own to find accommodation, find out if your parole/probation officer or a local Re-Entry charity can offer you any assistance.
Your parole officer should be able to connect you with landlords willing to rent to felons, and they may also be able to provide a housing voucher to pay for short-term accommodation.
Re-Entry charities also have links to felon-friendly landlords and transitional housing. Here are the contact details for several Re-Entry groups in Dallas TX.
- Texas Offenders Reentry Initiative – Call (214) 941-1325
- Chains Of Grace – Transitional housing request form https://chainsofgrace.org/housingrequest
- Dallas Life – https://dallaslife.org/place-to-stay/
- Forgiven Felons – https://www.forgivenfelons.org/contact
- Free Man House – https://freemanhouse.org/transitions/
- The Way Back House – https://thewaybackhouse.org/
You should also contact your local HUD office. HUD is the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and they provide affordable housing programs and housing vouchers (section 8 vouchers).
The waiting lists for these programs, if you’re eligible, can be fairly long but your local HUD office will have a list of landlords willing to rent to individuals with a problematic background.
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Use A Specialist Felony Friendly Apartment Locator
Felony-friendly or second-chance apartment locators already have all the right contacts to help you with your apartment search in Dallas TX. These services are free to use because they receive a finders fee from the apartment complex for finding a tenant.
You can search Google for apartment locators, but to get you started, here are two worth contacting.
Apartment Find For Criminal Issues (AptFind)
AptFind helps felons find apartments to rent in the Dallas Fort Worth area. John Sizemore the real estate agent running the service has a database of landlords that are willing to lease apartments to felons.
There’s no fee to pay to use the service, and a rebate is available when you sign a lease.
You’ll need to undergo a background check so that you can be matched with apartments that are willing to work with your offense. Once the apartment finder has found suitable apartments for you, they will make the initial call to the apartment manager/owner to verify that your background will be accepted.
Unfortunately, they are unable to help you if you’re a registered sex offender.
This is the website where you can learn more about the service, and then contact the agent if you want their help. https://aptfindcriminal.com/
Second Chance Apartment
Second Chance Apartment are another apartment finder service that can help you in your search for apartments that rent to felons in Dallas TX.
To use this service, your felony needs to be nonviolent and at least 5 years old.
It’s free to use the service and once you sign up you’ll receive access to apartment listings that consider applicants with background issues.
With this service, you need to call the apartments yourself, but Second Chance Apartment provides you with a script you can follow to help the call run smoothly.
Once you sign a lease, you’ll also be eligible for a rebate.
Here’s the website https://www.2ndchanceapartment.com/
Now that we’ve looked at some helpful resources that can help you find felon-friendly apartments to rent in Dallas, let’s take a quick look at a few more options you can use to look for apartments that rent to felons in Dallas TX.
Also, Read: Second Chance Felon Friendly Apartments In OKC
Finding Felon-Friendly Apartments On Dallas Craigslist
Craigslist is a big classifieds website and you may be able to find apartments that rent to felons in Dallas TX by searching through their rental listings. On Craigslist you’ll find private landlords who can be a lot more flexible than the letting managers at apartment complexes.
That’s not to say that every apartment will be listed by a private owner. You’ll need to look through the listings to find what type of listing it is.
And don’t limit yourself to apartments. From our research, you’re more likely to find a private owner listing a house rental than an apartment.
Rents on a house can often be lower than on an apartment because the owner doesn’t have to pay to maintain all of the facilities offered by apartment complexes.
Head over to Craigslist Dallas at dallas.craigslist.org. Then look at the Housing section.
You’ll see a link to apartments and houses, and if you’re interested in a room share, there’s a link for those as well.
Use the menu to narrow down your search to apartments or houses, and then filter by the number of bedrooms and bathrooms and the price.
You won’t find a listing that displays a felon-friendly notice, so you’ll still have to call and ask if they would be prepared to rent to you.
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Felon Friendly Apartments In Dallas TX On Zillow
Another website that you’ll find useful is Zillow. Zillow lists apartments and houses for sale and for rent.
Go to zillow.com and enter Dallas into the search bar. Use the filter options to select apartments or houses, and your price range.
Again, you’ll need to search through the listings looking for rentals listed by the property owner.
Apartments That Rent To Felons In Dallas TX On Trovit
If your felony is older (over 10 years) you can useTrovit to find a felon-friendly apartment in Dallas.
Go to homes.trovit.com, then select For Rent from the menu and enter Dallas accept felony in the search bar.
Hit search and you’ll see the listings that will accept a felony as long as it’s over 10 years old.
Final Thoughts
Finding felon friendly apartments Dallas TX isn’t easy if you try to search by yourself. You’ll make lots of applications and pay lots of application fees, only to be turned down over and over again.
Using an apartment locator will save you time and money because the agent does all of the leg work for you, and already knows which apartments are willing to rent to felons. And they’ve got an incentive to find you a place to live because they’ll get a finders fee when you sign a lease.
It’s also worth reaching out to Re-Entry organizations in Dallas to ask for help finding an apartments for felons in Dallas.
Good luck!
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Robert Eric (a lover of Cats and Dogs) is the co-founder of HireFelonsJobs. In our search for a better life, after… A platform was created for the purpose of easing the search for ex-convicts.