HOUSING DISCRIMINATION CONTINUES, STUDY SHOWS

RACIAL AND ETHNIC MINORITIES FACE MORE SUBTLE HOUSING DISCRIMINATION
HUD study finds decline in blatant discrimination while unequal treatment persists

WASHINGTON – Blatant acts of housing discrimination faced by minority homeseekers continue to decline in the U.S., yet more subtle forms of housing denial stubbornly persist, according to a new summary study released today by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Urban Institute. Housing Discrimination Against Racial and Ethnic Minorities 2012  finds African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians learn about fewer housing options than equally qualified whites.

Real estate agents and rental housing providers recommend and show fewer available homes and apartments to minority families, thereby increasing their costs and restricting their housing options. The study concludes this is a national, not a regional, phenomenon.

“Fewer minorities today may be getting the door slammed in their faces, but we continue to see evidence of housing discrimination that can limit a family’s housing, economic and educational opportunities,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. “It’s clear we still have work to do to end housing discrimination once and for all.”

“The forms of discrimination documented by this study are very difficult for victims to detect,” said the Urban Institute’s Margery Turner. “To detect housing discrimination today, HUD and local fair housing organizations need to conduct proactive testing, especially in the sales market, where discrimination appears higher than in the rental market.”

This is the fourth in a series of national studies sponsored by HUD roughly each decade to measure housing discrimination in rental and sales markets, since 1979. It finds that while minorities today are rarely denied an appointment to see an advertised unit, less blatant forms of unequal treatment persist.

“The study represents a glass that’s half full. While discrimination may not be as obvious as it was in the 1960s, the study reminds us that we still aren’t living up to the principles upon which this nation was founded,” said Bryan Greene, HUD Acting Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. “HUD is committed to ensuring that every American has equal access to housing opportunities.”

The Urban Institute, which conducted the study, employed a “paired testing” methodology in which researchers compared the treatment of white and minority homeseekers in a nationally representative sample of 28 metropolitan areas.* Of the more than 8,000 paired tests, two trained individuals (one white and the other black, Hispanic, or Asian), contacted a housing provider to inquire about a unit randomly selected from recently advertised homes and apartments. The two testers in each pair were matched on gender, age and family composition and assigned the same financial characteristics. With each tester presenting as unambiguously and equally well qualified to rent or buy the advertised unit, testers independently recorded the treatment they experienced, including information about all the homes or apartments recommended and shown.

Key findings of the report include:

• Taking into account the ability to make an appointment, the availability of units and homes, and the agent’s willingness to show units, minority renters and homebuyers are told about and shown fewer homes and apartments.

Black

• Black renters who contact agents about recently advertised housing units learn about 11% fewer available units and are shown roughly 4% fewer units.
• Black homebuyers who contact agents about recently advertised homes for sale learn about 17% fewer available homes and are shown about 18% fewer units.

Asian

• Asian renters who contact agents about recently advertised housing units learn about 10% fewer available units and are shown nearly 7% fewer units.
• Asian homebuyers who contact agents about recently advertised homes for sale learn about 15% fewer available homes and are shown nearly 19% fewer units.

Hispanic

• Hispanic renters who contact agents about recently advertised housing units learn about 12% fewer available units and are shown roughly 7% fewer units.
• The difference in treatment for Hispanic homebuyers is not statistically significant.

Among the measures of change over the most recent decade, only discrimination for availability of the advertised unit has declined. Black renters today appear less likely than a decade ago to be told that advertised units are unavailable. Asian renters are more likely than a decade ago to be shown fewer units but they are less likely to experience adverse treatment when making future arrangements with the agent. Changes in other measures of rental discrimination are not statistically significant. For changes in sales discrimination over the most recent decade, the authors find less evidence of meaningful progress. The only statistically significant change is for Hispanics, who are less likely than a decade ago to be denied financing help compared to equally-qualified white homebuyers.

Baltimore City Housing Authority Reaches Settlement for not Providing Proper Housing Accommodation

 

 

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced a  major settlement agreement with the Housing Authority of Baltimore City (HABC) after a resident complained the housing authority failed to make a reasonable accommodation for a family with a young son with special needs. HABC will pay $150,000 to the public housing resident as part of the Voluntary Compliance Agreement.

     The resident alleged that the housing authority failed to grant her request to be transferred to a larger unit that was closer to family support. The resident and her young son are persons with disabilities who needed a larger unit near family members who could assist in caring for them. The Fair Housing Act requires housing providers to make reasonable accommodations in their rules, policies, practices or services when needed to provide persons with disabilities an equal opportunity to use or enjoy a dwelling. In addition, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 makes it unlawful for any federally funded housing program to deny program benefits to an individual based on a disability.

     “Requests for reasonable accommodations that are needed by persons with disabilities must be taken seriously and receive timely responses,” said Jane C.W. Vincent, HUD’s Regional Administrator of the mid-Atlantic region. “HUD will continue to investigate the causes of delays in granting reasonable accommodation requests and take action when we determine that they were unnecessary.”

Wells Fargo Bank agrees to pay $42 million

Wells Fargo Bank agreed to pay $42 million to settle a complaint that it failed to maintain foreclosed properties in minority neighborhoods, turning the vacant houses into dilapidated eyesores.

The National Fair Housing Alliance and member organizations sued Wells Fargo in April 2012, alleging in an administrative complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that the bank violated the Fair Housing Act.

The complaint alleged Wells Fargo’s so-called “real estate owned” properties in white areas were much better maintained and marketed than the properties in African-American and Latino neighborhoods. For example, houses in minority areas often had ill-kept yards, broken doors, peeling paint or boarded-up windows.

“Many neighborhoods across the country have been seriously damaged by the foreclosure crisis, including the impact of [real estate owned] homes on property values, curb appeal, and tax revenue for schools,” said Shanna Smith, head of the National Fair Housing Alliance. “Our joint efforts will help lay the foundation for the industry to get some of those neighborhoods back on their feet.”

The housing groups filed similar complaints against Bank of America and U.S. Bancorp, which are still pending.

Wells Fargo—represented by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom partners Anand Raman and Joseph Barloon, who are both based in Washington—is the first to settle.

According to the plaintiffs, who turned to Joseph Sellers and Peter Romer-Friedman of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, it’s the first-ever agreement regarding the equal maintenance and marketing of bank-owned homes.

Wells Fargo agreed to provide $27 million to the fair housing organizations to promote home ownership, property rehabilitation and development in 19 communities of color, including areas of Baltimore, Washington D.C. and Prince George’s County, Md.

Another $3 million goes to the housing organizations to cover costs and attorney fees. The bank will also pay HUD $11.5 million to support neighborhoods in an additional 25 cities.

South Florida Developer agrees to retrofit thousands of local apartments to settle federal disabilities lawsuit

In a move advocates for the disabled heralded as a major step in efforts to make sure handicapped people have places to live, a leading South Florida builder has agreed to retrofit an estimated 5,000 units — including scores in Palm Beach County — with grab bars, ramps and other features so they are accessible to people in wheelchairs or who have other physical limitations.

Cornerstone Group Development Corp. agreed to make the improvements at more than 50 of its apartment complexes statewide, including The Preserve at Boynton Beach and Renaissance Apartments in West Palm Beach. The flurry of construction activity will settle a 2011 lawsuit filed against it by the National Fair Housing Alliance and the Greenacres-based Coalition for Independent Living Options.

In addition, the Hollywood-based developer agreed to pay the two groups $1.35 million and establish a fund to help disabled people anywhere in the state make their homes more accessible.

“It’s a huge, huge settlement agreement,” said Genevieve Cousminer, executive director of the coalition that is dedicated to helping disabled people live on their own. “There’s so little (accessible housing) available, so when a developer is building apartment complexes and representing that they are accessible, they really should be.”

Read More»