What is Housing Discrimination?
Housing discrimination is a problem nationwide. It is also 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. Many people are unaware that they have been victims of housing discrimination.
The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of:
- Race or color
- National origin
- Religion
- Sex
- Familial status (families with children)
- Disability
Under the Fair Housing Act, the following activities are illegal:
- Refuse to rent or sell housing
- Refuse to negotiate for housing
- Make housing unavailable
- Set different terms, conditions, or privileges for sale or rental
- Provide different housing services or facilities
- Falsely deny that housing is available for inspection, sale or rental
- For profit, persuade owners to sell or rent (blockbusting)
- Deny any access to or membership in a facility or service (such as a multiple listing service) related to the sale of housing
- Refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules or services if necessary for a disabled person to use the housing
- Refuse to allow a disabled person to make reasonable accommodations to his/her dwelling
- Threaten or interfere with anyone making a fair housing complaint
- Refuse to provide municipal services, property insurance or hazard insurance for dwellings, or providing such services or insurance differently http://www.civilrights.org/fairhousing/laws/housing-discrimination.html
What about Health?
· A 2005 Associated Press investigative study found that people of color and poor people live with more pollution than the rest of the nation.
· African Americans are 79 percent more likely than whites to live in neighborhoods where industrial pollution is suspected of posing the greatest health danger.
· African Americans in 19 states are more than twice as likely as whites to live in neighborhoods with high pollution, and a similar pattern was discovered for Hispanics in 12 states and Asians in 7 states.
· A 2008 study, “Race, Income, and Environmental Inequality in the United States” found that blacks experience such high pollution burden that black households with incomes between $50,000 and $60,000 live in neighborhoods that are, on average, more polluted than the average neighborhood in which white households with incomes below $10,000 live.
More of this article can be found at
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/11/targeted-environmental-justice-enforcement-needed-in-epa-region-4/
Redlining
The term "redlining" comes from maps which indicated minority geographic regions by coloring them red or drawing a red line around them. Banks and other businesses used these maps to deny loans, insurance or other business services to people in less desirable neighborhoods. Discrimination in housing toward individuals was outlawed in 1968 and discrimination in lending based on neighborhood was outlawed in 1977. The practice of redlining includes:
- outright refusal of banks to lend in minority neighborhoods
- procedures that discourage loan applications from minority areas, and
- marketing policies that exclude such areas.
These practices reduce the home loan options for people in minority neighborhoods and weaken competition in the mortgage market. This results in higher mortgage costs and less favorable mortgage loan terms.
In effect, racial redlining discourages people of color from pursuing home ownership.
Currently, the number of loan applications to people of color is proportionate to the racial make-up of King County; however, people of color are receiving sub-prime lending at disproportionate rates compared to whites.
- In 2004, Hispanic households were 2 times as likely and African-American households were 3 times as likely as white households to have a sub-prime loan.
- 69% of census tracts with the highest levels of sub-prime home purchase and refinance loans are in predominantly minority or diverse areas. http://www2.uwkc.org/kcca/crosscutting/RaceEquity/racehomeless.asp
Housing Discrimination in King County
- Up until 1968, it was legal to discriminate against people on the basis of their race when renting or selling property in King County. Historically, these laws, policies and practices have negatively affected access to affordable housing for people of color. Land developers, realtors, and neighborhood associations wrote racial restrictions into the property deeds in order to maintain racial segregation in King County neighborhoods.
- Other forms of discrimination were more covert. Steering, for example, was the practice of realtors unofficially agreeing to not show houses in white neighborhoods to people of color, and steering white home buyers into predominantly white neighborhoods. This resulted in confining black residents to certain neighborhoods.
- In 1960, the Central District was home to 78% of the City's black population. Even though in 2000 this neighborhood housed just over 30% of the King County black population, the historical legacy of segregation has prevented land and homes in the Central District from appreciating at the same rate as more white neighborhoods.
April 6, 2010
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) says an undercover sting caught Rita Lovejoy, manager of the Summerhill Apartments, discriminating against minorities and families with children when testers were sent in to rent an apartment. The sting was requested by King County's Office of Civil Rights.
Who can help?
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD’s mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes; utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination
- The National Fair Housing Alliance recognizes the importance of "home" as a component of the American dream and envisions a country free of housing discrimination where every individual, group and community enjoys equal housing opportunity and access in a bias free and open housing market where integrated neighborhoods are the norm, and the private and public sector guarantees civil rights in an open, and barrier free community committed to healing the history of discrimination in America.
- The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States. Through advocacy and outreach to targeted constituencies, The Leadership Conference works toward the goal of a more open and just society – an America as good as its ideals.The Leadership Conference is a 501(c)(4) organization that engages in legislative advocacy. It was founded in 1950 and has coordinated national lobbying efforts on behalf of every major civil rights law since 1957.
