By Suzanne Gamboa | The Associated Press
A major federal study has found that minority renters and homebuyers who test the housing market for discrimination were told about and shown fewer homes and apartments than their equally qualified white counterparts.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has released results of the study in which pairs of testers — one white, one minority — were deployed last year to do more than 8,000 tests separately across 28 metropolitan areas. Testers’ were the same gender and age and presented themselves as qualified to rent or buy a unit.
Minorities usually were able to get appointments and see at least one unit.
But study authors say the more subtle discrimination of telling them about and showing fewer units makes housing searches more costly and limits their options.
