Native Americans Face Discrimination in Housing
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HUD says more than one in four Native Americans face discrimination when renting HUD Deputy Secretary Alphonso Jackson released the results of the study to attendees of the 60th annual meeting of the National Congress of American Indians. The conference is being held in Albuquerque, NM, through November 21. Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Markets found that Native Americans in the metropolitan areas of New Mexico, Montana and Minnesota consistently receive less favorable treatment than similarly qualified whites when inquiring about the same advertised rental unit. The study showed that Native American renters were discriminated against more than 29 percent of the time. In comparison, African Americans nationally are discriminated against 22 percent of the time, Hispanics, 26 percent and Asians, 21 percent. “America has come a long way but this discrimination study illustrates that we have more work to do and we must stay focused to end discrimination,” Jackson said. “We simply will not allow discrimination to stop families across this nation from living in any home, apartment, neighborhood they can afford.” “Discrimination against Native Americans is especially severe, frequently denying them access to available housing altogether, while other minorities often experience subtler forms of discrimination, such as higher rents and application costs or less advice and assistance from rental agents,” said Margery Austin Turner, the study’s lead researcher and director of the Urban Institute’s Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center. The study describes an all-too familiar story: the plight of a 43-year old American Indian woman from Billings, Montana who inquired about renting a one-bedroom apartment for herself. She was willing to pay between $250 and $300 per month in rent. The building manager told her that the advertised unit was no longer available and did not tell her about or show her any alternatives. A few hours later, a 55-year old white woman met with the same building manager, and asked about the same type of apartment. She was told that the advertised unit was still available, and she was able to walk through it that afternoon. The study, which was based on 297 rental paired-tests conducted in the 8 major metropolitan areas of the 3 states and 100 sales paired-tests in New Mexico, is the first time HUD has measured the extent of housing discrimination against Native Americans. In 2002, HUD released a report showing that the level of discrimination against African Americans renters had declined since 1989 from 26 percent to 22 percent, while the level of discrimination against Hispanic renters had not changed. The report also showed that levels of discrimination faced by African American homebuyers had declined from 29 percent in 1989 to 17 percent in 2000 while discrimination faced by Hispanic homebuyers declined from 27 to 20 percent. In 2003, HUD released another report showing the level of discrimination faced by Asians and Pacific Islanders is similar to the level experienced by African Americans and Hispanics. The Native American study used a technique called “paired testing” to measure the level of housing discrimination. Paired testing matches two individuals, one minority and the other white non-Hispanic, and assigns them otherwise nearly identical characteristics. Both testers respond to the same advertisement within a short time of one another and independently record their experiences. Analysts then compare those experiences to determine which tester received adverse treatment on different treatment variables. Anyone who believes they have experienced housing discrimination should call HUD’s Housing Discrimination Hotline at (800) 669-9777, or visit HUD’s fair housing web site at www.hud.gov. More : rismedia.com |