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Finally, the truth can
be told.
Last year, HOME was
called upon to participate in a national study aimed at gauging the extent
of housing discrimination in the United States.
There had been two
earlier federally funded studies, which attempted to measure housing
discrimination in America: the 1977 Housing Market Practices Study and the
1989 Housing Discrimination Study; neither of these earlier research
projects included the Buffalo metropolitan area.
Given that
discrimination occurs whenever a member of a group receives less favorable
treatment than a member of another group, measurements of bias become
complicated. The 1989 study reported, for example, that more than 10
percent of African-American testers were refused housing outright while an
additional 24 percent were shown fewer units than were Whites.
Discerning
discrimination can be still more complicated. How many home seekers are
asked to provide qualifying financial information prior to being shown
housing? How many are offered information or referrals about financing?
How many receive courteous treatment, a business card, or a return call
from the real estate agent or property manager? The list of subtle
discriminatory acts, each indicative of incremental unequal treatment,
goes on.
We are still not at
liberty to go into detail about HOME’s role in what was a top-secret
project intended to measure racial discrimination in both home sales and
rentals. Associate Director Andrea Mujahid-Moore and Investigations
Coordinator Bud Drexinger were flown to another state for specialized
training in testing methodology and research protocols. HOME then
conducted intensive tester recruitment and training and, over a period of
months, conducted an unprecedented number of tests on a sample of housing
providers drawn by the Washington-based Urban Institute.
Over the course of
eight months, this research project took a toll on HOME’s staff: on
Mujahid-Moore and Drexinger who worked as many as 55 hours each week, on
Rachel Bedor and DeAnna Eason of the Fair Housing Unit who were asked to
assume some of their colleagues’ regular workload, and on Margaret Brown
and Nina Worrell of the Support Unit who provided necessary assistance.
Indeed, HOME’s entire staff was asked to limit vacation requests for the
duration of the project as our resources were stretched to the breaking
point.
HOME took on this
project because of our belief in the paramount importance of objectively
measuring the extent of housing discrimination in our nation. We look
forward to the public release of the final research report.
Fighting hate
Elsewhere in this issue
Anne Huiner has written a fine article about the recent appearance of
Morris Dees, founder and chief trial attorney of the Southern Poverty Law
Center, before a packed house at Canisius College’s Montante Cultural
Center.
Buffalo has Canisius’
Vice President and General Counsel John Hurley to thank for inviting the
crusading attorney and civil rights activist to one of the most segregated
metropolitan areas in America. Both at the lecture and at the reception
that preceded it, Mr. Dees was modest, explaining that he was repeatedly
given credit for the hard work of many good people at the SPLC. Progress
in civil rights requires the collaborative effort of a great many people.
In recent years, HOME
has been a supporting member of the Law Center. We have appreciated the
educational materials produced by their Tolerance Project and worked in
partnership with SPLC’s Intelligence Project, even making a very modest
contribution to the Center’s efforts to monitor the four hate groups which
today exist in Erie County.
I want to thank Friend
of HOME John Hurley and Canisius President Father Vincent Cooke for
inviting members of the HOME Board to attend the lecture and reception.
Guidance for
landlords
I recall movie trailers
from an earlier era which melodramatically trumpeted films as productions
“years in the making.” The Fourth Edition of the Buffalo Housing
Group’s book, A Guide To Landlords’
Rights, was just such a project.
Expanded to 100 pages,
the book incorporates changes in the law which have occurred in the decade
since the previous edition—and includes new sections on tenant selection
and a landlord’s obligations surrounding lead paint as well as a new
chapter dealing with safety and crime prevention.
The book was written by
four people including Andrea Mujahid-Moore, Anne Huiner and David Wright.
The authors relied on a variety of experts including Grace Andriette,
Pamela Beal, Rachel Bedor, Charles Bartulotta, Michelle Graves, Elizabeth
Huckabone, Daire Brian Irwin, Joseph Kugler, Kathy O’Brien, Mary Shine and
Campbell DeLong Resources, Inc. Production of the book was also supported
by a generous grant from the Cameron Baird Foundation.
The first edition of
the Guide was published in 1982, largely through the efforts of
Denis Woods and George Hezel (of Catholic Charities’ Division of Housing)
and the Real Estate Committee of the Erie County Bar Association. The
first three editions sold thousands of copies, and have helped foster
better relations between tens of thousands of landlords and tenants.
We expect no less of
the new edition. |
