Housing Discrimination

The days of “whites only” real estate deals are history, but housing discrimination lives on in subtler forms. Federal, state and local officials receive 10,000 complaints a year from minorities who say they were mistreated by real estate agents - steered away from desirable neighborhoods or misled about the availability of a house or apartment. Although progress is being made, minorities are also more likely than whites to be denied financing, according to recent studies. The real estate and banking industries have been training employees to avoid discrimination, and the Clinton administration has launched an unprecedented crackdown on violators of fair housing and lending laws. Critics, however, warn of a “witch hunt” that penalizes the entire real estate industry because of a few violators.