Earlier quoted context omitted.
Every time we advertise for a new tenant we get many calls that go like this: "Do you do criminal background checks?" "Yes." "Ok, thank you, goodbye."
To me that's very up-front. There might be a lot of people who would try to hide disqualifying information, hoping you don't find it. There are probably a limited number of landlords who rent to felons, and they have to just make 1000 calls to find a place.
I've been reading Evictions: Poverty and Profit in the American City on recommendation from HN and it has been eye opening. They don't make 1,000 calls, but there are several stories of people making a little over or under 100 different calls because of prior evictions and/or felony convictions. The quantity is only magnified by the fact that they're limited to apartments that are ~$500/month (which is already ~75+% of their monthly income). The book is heavily anti-landlord, although I'm not versed enough to say whether that's the truth or if there is a heavy bias.
I don't know what the solution is. There's a delicate balance of trying to give people a chance to recover or rehabilitate without also forcing landlords with cheap property to enter into blind negotiations and potentially damaging their own property. Frankly, Section 8 seems like a bad solution, and that we should go back to government owned and leased housing where you won't be evicted for complaining about sub-standard conditions because the landlord knows you can't afford a lawyer.