Hearing the term red-lining in 2015 may seem oxymoronic. Right? Not necessarily, at least according to some new data.
Americans have been making a collective mistake: thinking that wealthy non-whites do not face discrimination anymore, and can, therefore, live wherever they prefer. It was a complaint brought up by the National Fair Housing Alliance this year that showed the issue is still alive and relevant. This is happening fifty years after the abolishment of housing discrimination by Congress through the Fair Housing Act.
The National Fair Housing Alliance’s revealed that real estate agents were encouraging segregation. They were doing this by blocking the people of color from purchasing property in high-value areas. These are the areas that would offer better returns for them and provide a quality education for their children.
The alliance states that within the period of one year, white and black testers acting as interested home buyers experienced different scenarios with real estate companies. The agents from the company declined to direct black clients to some properties. This happened even though some of the blacks were more qualified than the whites, had better credit scores, higher incomes and more savings for down payments. On the other hand, the white testers were taken to majority-white communities despite requesting for property in black-dominated areas of a city.
Investigations by the alliance covering Philadelphia, Detroit, Columbia, San Antonio, Dayton, Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Chicago showed that the discrimination in the housing market was universal.
The Latino and black testers were shown fewer homes than their white peers despite being financially qualified. That is not all: they were also denied the knowledge about special incentives; these would have simplified their purchases and made the required documents available. They were even being asked for documents such as loan pre-approval letters yet the whites were not being asked for them.
It was clear that real estate agents controlled school and racing segregation by determining home buyers’ settlement based on their races. Latinos were forced to stay in Latino-dominated neighborhoods, African-Americans in their (black) schools and the whites were encouraged to live in white-dominated areas.
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