Housing Discrimination and Housing Policy Analysis
As we look back at the history of the United States, one of our worst legacies is our poor treatment of minorities. In our country's earliest years we were importing and selling blacks into slavery, an issue that tore our country in two. Yet through trying and often tragic efforts, minority leaders have elevated the legal status of blacks. With the passing of the Civil Rights Act early this century, the 1968 signing of the Fair Housing Act, and the recent enactment of Affirmative Action, it seemed as if African Americans would now have the same opportunities as white Americans. However, this is clearly not the case. Through subverted and underhanded tactics, many white Americans continue to limit the opportunities of minorities, and because of the nature of these tactics, the individual oppressed minorities are usually unaware of their existence. The problem lies in the racism that is deeply rooted in the foundation of this country, whose capitalist origins started in large slave owning plantations. As a result, a general attitude of minority inferiority has permeated our culture. Because of these attitudes, many white Americans in a position of authority segregate minorities and subsequently segregate themselves, altogether elimi
2) Moving to Opportunity Program, February 20,1999 Although many individual minorities are unaware of their own circumstances, the intense segregation of minorities in general has become a major issue. When the racial diversity of certain cities were analyzed, and it became clear exactly how intense the segregation actually was, some decided that the presence of housing discrimination should be investigated. They decided to use a process called "testing." When an organization "tests" a real estate agency, they will send in a member of a minority group, protected under the Fair Housing Act, and a white control tester. These individuals present themselves to the agency at separate times but with the same credentials. The idea behind testing being that if each individual has the same credentials, than he/she should receive the same information about housing opportunities. This is not what happened. In most instances, minority customers were only shown those houses in minority area, and white customers were shown houses in white areas. The emergence of testing awoke many to the problems and dangers of housing discrimination. As a result, agencies were set up to investigate and create awareness regarding housing discrimination. The Fair Housing Council of Greater Washington is one of these such agencies and is a tremendous resource to those who truly wish to eliminate housing discrimination. The Council will investigate complaints of housing discrimination in the form of testing and will assist individuals in filing housing discrimination suits. In addition, the council provides services to real estate agencies that wish to incorporate fair housing into their daily business as well as providing education and outreach services to spread awareness. The Council was founded on the belief that "housing discrimination in the most formidable barrier to the achievement of our national goal of an integrated society," and they have helped to eliminate the problem with "legal precedents that have expanded and clarified fair housing protections, injunctive relief, landmark judgments and record-setting settlements, all of which have inflated the cost of discrimination for its perpetrators." These quotes from the Council's mission statement clearly illustrate how determined they are. A specific example of the Council's testing took place in Montgomery County Maryland (between 1992 and 1995 the Council received almost 150 complaints regarding housing discrimination.) Montgomery County Maryland is the largest jurisdiction in Maryland with a population of 795,600 of which minorities account for 206,060. African Americans make up 13.4 percent of the total population. Under funding from HUD, the council performed a fair housing test in the Suburban Maryland area. When the test was complete, the Council indeed found evidence of housing discrimination, in spite of a 1974 law passed in the county that requires rental developments with 25 or more units to report on the racial demographics or their residents. nating contact between the two groups despite their relative proximity to one another. These segregated areas are the poverty stricken inner cities inhabited by minorities
Some common words found in the essay are:
African Americans, Housing Act, Council Washington, Assisted Properties, Department Justice, Suburban Maryland, , housing discrimination, County Maryland, fair housing, real estate, Department Justices, Fair Housing, fair housing act, housing act, real estate agents, lending discrimination, minority customers, enforcement fair, estate agents, 20 1999, enforcement fair housing, february 20 1999, segregate minorities, housing discrimination major,
Approximate Word count = 2179
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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