Commissioner Nick Fish’s office has released a list of 26 properties in Portland where black and Latino rental applicants in tests conducted by the Fair Housing Council of Oregon said they encountered discrimination.
Fish’s office also has begun notifying the property managers and landlords whose properties are shown on the city’s list. The audit, commissioned by Fish, was conducted last summer and fall. The general results were released in April.
The upshot: Latinos reported discrimination in 17 of 25 tests, compared to a white applicant. For blacks, it was 15 of 25 tests.
Look for a story in this week’s paper that looks at the list, and at how difficult it can be—despite breathless calls for enforcement—to turn allegations like those contained in the audit into something that would satisfy a declaration that someone has broken fair housing laws.
Here’s the list. And here are the letters written to property owners, and to property managers. Today’s list, for the first time, ties specific allegations of discrimination to each of the 26 properties.
Awesome. Thanks for posting this.
Were the properties surveyed chosen at random among all area landlords, or were the sample taken from landlords for whom the Fair Housing Council had received complaints or allegations of fair housing law violations?