Feature

Study Shows Asians Face Housing Discrimination

by the Department of Housing and Urban development

This summer, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a study conducted in 11 cities that indicates one out of every five Asians and Pacific Islanders who attempts to buy or rent a home is discriminated against, a rate similar to that of African Americans and Hispanics.

The HUD study, conducted by the Urban Institute, is the most ambitious effort to date in the United States to measure the extent of housing discrimination against persons based on race or ethnicity. Entitled Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Markets: Phase 2 - Asians and Pacific Islanders, the study was conducted in Anaheim/Santa Ana, Chicago, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Oakland, CA, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose and Washington, DC. These metropolitan areas account for 77 percent of all Asians and Pacific Islanders living in the U.S.

This study, based on 889 paired-tests, is the first time HUD has measured the extent of housing discrimination against Asians and Pacific Islanders. Two previous HUD studies, conducted in 1977 and 1989, examined housing discrimination faced by African Americans and Hispanics. In 2002, HUDreleasedastudyentitled Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Markets: Phase 1. This report demonstrated that even though the level of discrimination against African Americans and Hispanics had declined since 1989, it continues to remain a serious problem. <

Study Details

Using the paired-testing technique, two people—a minority and a white non-Hispanic—pose as otherwise identical home-seekers, with comparable housing needs and levels of income, assets and debt. Both testers respond to an advertisement by visiting the same real estate or rental agent within a short time of one another and independently record their experiences. Analysts then compare those experiences to determine which tester received adverse treatment according to different treatment variables. Treatment variables are the various opportunities that agents have to behave differently toward the testers. For example, each tester asks about the same advertised unit. If the unit is available to one and not the other, that test is recorded as showing adverse treatment toward the tester for whom the unit was not available.

Consistent Adverse Treatment, one of the study’s categories, indicates the percent of tests in which a minority tester experiences unfavorable treatment on one or more of the 15 treatment indicators and receives favorable treatment relative to a comparable white tester on none of the 15 treatment indicators. This is considered the best estimate of the level of discrimination.

Specifically, the study found that Asian and Pacific Islander prospective renters experienced “consistent adverse treatment” relative to comparable whites in 21.5 percent of the tests. This is about the same rate experienced by prospective African American and Hispanic renters. Asian and Pacific Islander prospective homebuyers experienced “consistent adverse treatment” relative to comparable whites 20.4 percent of the time, with “systematic discrimination” occurring in housing availability, inspections, financing assistance and agent encouragement.
Another study category, Systematic Discrimination, reveals the difference between the percent of tests on which a white is favored, according to a particular treatment indicator, versus the percent of tests on which a minority is favored, using the same scale.

In addition to the national estimate for Asians and Pacific Islanders, the report also provides a national estimate for Asians alone, an estimate for the continental U.S., a statewide estimate of discrimination against Asians and Pacific Islanders in California, estimates of discrimination faced by Chinese and Koreans in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and an estimate of discrimination faced by Southeast Asians in the Minneapolis metropolitan area. Future studies will provide statewide estimates of discrimination against Native Americans and metropolitan estimates of discriminationagainstpersonswith disabilities.

Future HUD Goals
“In addition to using the research findings to document our nation’s progress in reducing housing discrimination, we also will use the data to better target HUD’s education and enforcement resources,” said Carolyn Peoples, HUD’s assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity. “To achieve the Bush Administration’s goal of increasing minority homeowners by the end of this decade, we need to ensure that every segment of our population has equal access to the housing of their choice.”

HUD is stepping up its enforcement of housing discrimination. Over the past two years, the number of backlogged cases of alleged discrimination has been significantly reduced. At the start of the Bush Administration, some 85 percent of cases were considered “aged” or over a hundred days old. By last October, that rate was down to 29 percent. Similarly, backlogged cases among state and local HUD contractors dropped from 69 to 44 percent.

In April, HUD, in partnership with the Ad Council, unveiled a new cutting edge, multimedia campaign designed to fight housing discrimination by showing the many faces of those persons protected by the nation’s 35-year-old Fair Housing Act.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of the SFAA or the San Francisco Apartment Magazine. HUD is committed to increasing homeownership and creating affordable housing opportunities. The Department also promotes economic and community development as well as enforces the nation’s fair housing laws. Copies of the report can be downloaded from www.huduser.org as well as ordered by calling 800-hud-user.