HUD Report: One-in-Five Asians Face Housing Discrimination
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Even after 35 years since the United States Fair Housing Act was passed to protect homeowners and tenants from discrimination and unfair treatment, efforts still need to be made to combat continued adverse treatment of minority groups, including Asian Pacific Americans according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Assistant HUD Secretary for Far Housing and Equal Opportunity Carolyn Peoples said although her office has seen a slight decline in discrimination in the past decade, there is still a wide disparity nationwide among the percentage of white homebuyers and renters compared to those who are APA, black or Hispanic. Peoples was in San Francisco on Jan. 21 briefing local and regional HUD officers on federal efforts to end discrimination in housing. “The message is, if you’re a minority and you’re looking for housing, you’re going to have obstacles,” Peoples said. “The Fair Housing Act looks to remove the greatest barrier there is to acquiring residency — discrimination.” Although Asian Pacific Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area have the highest homeownership rates compared with any other racial and ethnic group, 46 percent; followed by whites, 33 percent; blacks, 30 percent; and Hispanics 27 percent, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, a recent HUD study shows APAs still faced discrimination when wanting to buy or rent a residence. The study, released in July of 2003, provided the first ever estimate of the level of discrimination experienced by APAs based on 889-paired tests conducted in 11 metropolitan neighborhoods nationwide in 2000 and 2001. The findings show that APA prospective renters experienced consistent adverse treatment compared to whites in 21.5 percent of the tests, about the same level for blacks and Hispanic renters. APA prospective homebuyers faced adverse treatment compared to whites 20.4 percent of the time, with systematic discrimination occurring in housing availability, inspections, financing assistance and agent encouragement, according to the HUD study, “Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Markets: Phase 2 — Asian-Pacific Islanders.” Tara Lai Quinlan, of the Washington, D.C.-based Relman and Associates, a law firm specializing in fair housing, fair lending, worked on the HUD housing discrimination study and supervised the entire housing sales portion of the study that covered all of Alameda and Contra Costa counties. More : news.asianweek.com |