Housing Discrimination Research

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has sponsored paired-testing studies to document and estimate rates of discrimination in housing markets since the late 1970s. This report presents findings from a pilot study of discrimination in the rental housing market based on sexual orientation (using same-sex relationship status as a proxy) and gender status, two categories that are not covered explicitly by the Fair Housing Act. This study was designed to (1) develop and pilot test an in-person, paired-testing protocol to estimate rental housing discrimination against men partnering with men and women partnering with women relative to comparable heterosexual couples, (2) develop and pilot test an in-person, paired-testing protocol to estimate rental housing discrimination against transgender individuals, and (3) compare the utility of remote testing conducted by telephone or e-mail with in-person testing. The research team conducted a total of 2,009 paired tests in Dallas, TX; Los Angeles, CA; and Washington, DC. Findings included that housing providers treated lesbians comparably to heterosexual women seeking rental housing, told gay men about one fewer available rental unit for every 4.2 tests than they told heterosexual men, and told transgender testers about fewer units than they told cisgender homeseekers. Read Report >>

This pilot study uses rigorous paired testing methodology to explore landlord treatment of Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) holders during the initial stages of the housing search process. It is the first study to use paired testing methods across multiple sites to examine landlord treatment of HCV holders. The study finds that landlords often refuse to rent to HCV holders. In most cases, the landlord refusal takes place early in the search process, when a tester calls the landlord and asks whether Housing Choice Vouchers are accepted. In other cases, the landlord may suggest that vouchers are accepted, but subsequently fail to show up for a scheduled appointment. Landlord denial rates vary across the five study sites and may be influenced by factors such as state or local laws that prohibit discrimination by source of income (particularly local source of income laws that include protections for Section 8/voucher holders), housing market conditions, and voucher payment standards. Read Report >>

More than 15 million people in the United States have some type of mental disability. Many of these individuals seek community-based housing in the rental market. As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision, an increasing number of individuals with disabilities are moving from nursing homes and other institutional settings into community-based settings. Additionally, the overwhelming majority of housing discrimination complaints received in the U.S. involve discrimination based on a disability. This pilot study represents the first comprehensive examination of discrimination in the rental housing market against people with mental disabilities (MD). The study specifically focuses on persons with mental illness (MI) and those with intellectual or developmental disabilities (I/DD). The goal of the study was to increase the understanding of the prevalence and forms of housing discrimination against this population as they seek market-rate housing and to evaluate the utility of different approaches to paired testing when conducting research on housing discrimination on the basis of mental disability. Read Report >>

The essay Future Directions for Research argues that the results of the HDS-Families pilot study—and those of the most recent national paired-testing study of discrimination against minority homeseekers—suggest that protected classes of homeseekers are no longer blatantly denied access to available housing. Many fair housing advocates and practitioners suggest that discrimination today may take different forms or may occur at different stages in the homeseeking process. If so, effectively measuring the incidence of discrimination in 21^st century housing markets may require alternative research strategies. This essay discusses possible adaptations to paired-testing study design; an analysis of local occupancy standards and how they are applied by housing providers; exploratory analyses of discrimination at later stages of renting; interviews of housing providers to understand their knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and a large-scale survey of renters. Read Report >>

This pilot study adapted a well-established paired-testing methodology to examine discrimination against families with children in the rental housing market, developed preliminary estimates of this form of discrimination, and explored what family or housing characteristics might affect it. Data were collected via telephone and in-person paired tests in three metropolitan sites: Dallas, Texas; Dayton, Ohio; and Los Angeles, California. The pilot study relied on a multifactor design using data from 612 matched pairs of rental applicants. Key findings are that homeseekers with or without children are equally likely to get an appointment with a rental agent and learn about at least one available housing unit. Compared with their childless counterparts, prospective renters with children were shown slightly fewer units and were told about units that were slightly larger, and, as a result, were slightly more expensive to rent. Other outcomes did not vary by the presence of a child. Differential treatment was greater in tests targeting one-bedroom units (versus larger units) and tests involving two-child families (versus one-child families). Other factors, including race/ethnicity and marital status of the tester and ages and sexes of the children, did not appear to affect systematically how families with children were treated in the rental housing market. Read Report >>

This report provides results of the first national paired-testing study of housing discrimination against people who are deaf or hard of hearing and against people who use wheelchairs. Given differences in the challenges faced by people who are deaf or hard of hearing from those experienced by people who use wheelchairs, there are two study designs. Tests with people who are deaf or hard of hearing focused on housing searches conducted with telecommunication relay services, whereas tests with people who use wheelchairs focused on housing searches for accessible buildings and housing units. In both cases, there is systematic evidence of unfavorable treatment. The findings presented here have broad implications for policymakers, fair housing practitioners, and researchers, telecommunications engineers, professionals in the housing construction industry, and those in housing management firms. Read Report >>

This issue of Cityscape offers a comprehensive review of HUD’s paired-testing research, which first focused exclusively on discrimination against African-American homeseekers, and, most recently, expanded to measure discrimination based on disability, sexual preference and gender identity, family composition, and housing voucher recipiency. Read Articles >>

This article in the Spring/Summer 2014 issue of Evidence Matters looks at paired testing and studies investigating housing discrimination. Read Article >>

This is the first large-scale, paired-testing study to assess housing discrimination against same-sex couples in metropolitan rental markets via advertisements on the Internet. The research is based on 6,833 e-mail correspondence tests conducted in 50 metropolitan markets across the United States from June through October 2011. For each correspondence test, two e-mails were sent to the housing provider, each inquiring about the availability of the unit advertised on the Internet. The only difference between the two e-mails was the sexual orientation of the couple making the inquiry. Two sets of correspondence tests were conducted, one assessing the treatment of gay male couples relative to heterosexual couples and one assessing the treatment of lesbian couples relative to heterosexual couples. This methodology provides the first direct evidence of discriminatory treatment of same-sex couples compared with the treatment of heterosexual couples when searching for rental housing advertised on the Internet in the United States. Read Report >>

For much of the twentieth century, discrimination by private real estate agents and rental property owners helped establish and sustain stark patterns of housing and neighborhood inequality. Beginning in the late 1970s, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has rigorously monitored trends in racial and ethnic discrimination in both rental and sales markets approximately once each decade through a series of nationwide paired-testing studies. This summary report presents findings from the fourth such study, which applied paired-testing methodology in 28 metropolitan areas to measure the incidence and forms of discrimination experienced by black, Hispanic, and Asian renters and homebuyers. Read Report >>

Many organizations work with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to implement fair housing programs and policies. In particular, the efforts of Private Fair Housing Groups (PFHGs) have been recognized as vital forces in assisting HUD, as well as state and local governments, to promote fair housing patterns and practices. PFHGs have exhibited a strong commitment to fair housing and sometimes can pursue avenues not open to public anti-discrimination agencies. PFHGs have identified and combatted discriminatory techniques that have escaped the attention of others--including the federal government. Read Report >>

This case study is one of a series being prepared under contract to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of a HUD-funded research and demonstration project. A key element of this project was the provision of funds to nine State civil rights agencies to enable them to either launch or expand fair housing programs directed particularly against systemic discrimination. Read Report >>