Unending War on Housing Bias

Housing discrimination can be so subtle that those who suffer it don’t always know it’s happening. That’s why investigations such as one now under way in Orange County are necessary.

The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department is looking into charges that a property management firm limited the number of minority members and families with children in eight apartment complexes in Fullerton and one in Buena Park. By law, people cannot be barred from living where they want because of their race, ethnic background, marital status or children. In housing as in schools, there is no such thing as separate but equal.

A year ago the Fair Housing Council of Orange County began an investigation of the Yoder-Shrader Management Co. of Santa Ana, which handles the Fullerton and Buena Park apartments. After HUD was brought in, federal “testers” were sent to the housing complexes. HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo says minority applicants were told no apartments were available. White testers who applied minutes later were offered the apartments.

A Fair Housing Council official said its investigation showed that when apartments weren’t immediately available, applicants were allowed to put their names on a waiting list and that only white applicants were called back. That’s the subtlety; people can be turned away and assume they’ve been told the truth, that there are no available apartments.

A former manager of the Yoder-Shrader company said her supervisor had told her not to rent to blacks, Latinos and other minorities or to families with children. She said that to avoid obvious evidence of discrimination, limited numbers of minority renters were allowed into the complexes.

No charges have been filed against the company. But heavy fines will be warranted if it turns out that the firm did discriminate in its rentals. Society cannot tolerate housing discrimination--a message that has to be repeated.