HUD Looks To Anti-Gay Bias Investigation

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has always found it easy to check racial bias against renters and home buyers. The department has a new investigation that it is having difficulty with, however: how to test for anti-gay sentiment.

HUD a first-ever study of housing discrimination against gays. While it is easy to test for racial bias, simply sending in investigators of the appropriate race or color, it is having difficulty designing this study.

Due to these difficulties, HUD enlisting residents in Chicago, San Francisco, and New York, three cities with large gay populations, to help. They want the volunteers to offer ideas on how such a study should be conducted.

Raphael Bostic, HUD’s assistant secretary for policy development and research is overseeing the study. He said:

“This really is groundbreaking. Nothing like this has ever been tried before at this scale and certainly not by a federal agency.”

While Chicago, San Francisco, and New York all ban housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, the federal Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in sales and rentals of homes, doesn’t cover gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.

Additionally, while local and state studies of this type have been conducted, nothing on the federal level has been done. It is hoped by advocates that this federal study could be a first step.

Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said, “It finally will give us hard data to back up the heartbreaking stories of discrimination we’ve been hearing for years. This HUD study will show that there are a class of people ... who have been repeatedly shut out of that portion of the American dream.”

Michigan’s Fair Housing Centers, which is a group of private advocacy organizations, found nearly 30 percent of same-sex couples were treated "differently" when trying to rent or buy a home. Included as examples were a Detroit landlord who told investigators, “No drugs, prostitution, homosexuality, one-night stands.”

Written by Michael Santo
HULIQ.com