Housing discrimination complaints rising, report says
By Genaro C. Armas
Associated Press
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But when she called for more information, a woman told her, "No pets. No children." Ramirez hung up but then remembered it was illegal to discriminate against someone with kids. "I said, 'Wait a minute, she can't do this,' " she recounted later.
Ramirez, a fair-housing advocate from Toledo, Ohio, sued and has settled out of court. Hers was one of more than 25,000 claims or complaints of housing discrimination filed last year, up 7 percent from 2001, according to a report from the National Fair Housing Alliance.
The alliance is a coalition of private, nonprofit local groups that gets government funding to handle cases and raise awareness of the issue.
Advocates say the past year's increase is probably due to more cases being reported and increased awareness rather than a surge in discrimination itself.
More people were also brought into the housing market last year because of low interest rates, which may have led to more chances for discrimination, said Floyd May, deputy assistant secretary for fair housing for the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
"Where you have nowhere to go and the discrimination occurs you pretty much have to find someplace else to live and the discriminator wins," said the alliance's executive director, Shanna Smith. "The chance of being caught is so remote that they can act with impunity."
The Fair Housing Act, which was signed into law 35 years ago, prohibits discrimination in the financing, rental or sale of any housing based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. A 1988 amendment extended coverage to outlaw discrimination based on disability or family status.
A separate survey commissioned by HUD last year showed widespread public support for the protections provided by fair housing laws but also widespread confusion about what the laws require and whom they protect.
In the case of family status, it is against the law for a landlord to discriminate against a prospective tenant because that person has a child younger than 18, or is pregnant. There are exceptions if the apartment complex or development is mainly for residents 55 and older.
The latest report tracked complaints made to the local advocacy groups, along with those made directly to HUD and the Justice Department.
Nearly 70 percent of the complaints filed in 2002 were through the local offices.
All entities saw an increase in complaints filed except for the Justice Department, which had just 63 cases, about the same number as 2001.
About 30 percent of all complaints were based on race and an additional 27 percent on disability, similar to previous years, Smith said. Fifteen percent of cases were based on a person's family status.
About 12 percent dealt with complaints of discrimination over someone's nationality, up slightly from 10 percent in 2001.
That may be in part due to backlash against people of Middle Eastern descent after the Sept. 11 attacks, the report said.
HUD is sponsoring a yearlong national advertising campaign to be launched later this month by the private housing alliance to increase awareness of housing discrimination.
