Housing Discrimination

          Although it is illegal to discriminate in housing against people based on race, age, gender, ethnicity and religion many realtors still do it. It is severely under reported. "The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimates that more than two million instances of housing discrimination occur each year, but fewer than one percent are reported". In addition, many people are unaware that they have been victims of housing discrimination. Realtors find quite a few ways to go around the system. 

Here are some examples of how some people have been discriminated against:

A real estate agent tries to persuade someone not to buy or rent a house in a certain neighborhood. This is called steering.

A black person answers a newspaper ad for an apartment. The landlord tells him that apartment has already been rented. It turns out the apartment was not rented, and the landlord rents it to a white applicant.

A landlord evicts a white tenant from her mobile home because her black friends visit her there.

A landlord checks the credit records of all Black and Hispanic applicants and uses small credit problems as an excuse to refuse to rent apartments to them. However, the landlord does not check white applicants’ credit records or overlooks small credit problems in their records.

A landlord refuses to rent an apartment to a blind woman because she has a seeing-eye dog.

A female tenant and her family are evicted from their apartment because the tenant refused the landlord’s sexual advances.

How Can You Stop Housing Discrimination?

• File a complaint on the HUD Website: 

https://portalapps.hud.gov/
AdaptivePages/HUD/complaint

• As soon as you feel you have been discriminated against, write down everything that happened. The more information, the better. Write down:
  • The date and time of day when the discrimination occurred.
  • The address and phone number of the people you dealt with.
  • The name or physical appearance of the persons to whom you spoke or whom you saw.
  • Everything you said.
  • Everything the other person said
    (include all the details, even if they don't seem very important).
  • If you answered a newspaper ad and you still have or can get the newspaper, save that whole page.
  • The names and addresses of anyone, such as a friend, family member, co-worker, who witnessed your meeting or conversation with the other person.
  • How it felt to be denied the apartment or otherwise be the victim of discrimination.
• Testing is a method of investigating a landlord or real estate agent's behavior to help determine whether that person is illegally discriminating against you.
• How it works if you are Latino get another Latino tester to apply
• Then get a White tester to apply. See if just the White person gets the apartment
• Find a tester who works in your county, this is a paid position 
• More information of testers: http://www.justice.gov/crt/fair-housing-testing-program-1 

 Same Sex Housing Discrimination Video Link