Despite ‘troubling’ fair-housing results, Portland to cut back on testing
A new report confirms that black and Latino renters continue to face disproportionate barriers in Portland’s rental market four years after city officials pledged to eliminate housing discrimination.
Undercover testing determined that landlords gave preferential treatment to white prospective renters in 12 of 25 cases, or 48 percent of tests, according to results released Tuesday by the Portland Housing Bureau.
The testing also found that people with disabilities and families with children faced barriers but at levels far below those for people of color. Testing found differential treatment in seven of 26 cases, or 27 percent of tests. (See full results at the end of this story)
“The numbers are still very, very troubling to me,” said Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who oversees the Portland Housing Bureau. For blacks and Latinos, he added, “they’re awful.”
The long-awaited statistics offer the most definitive look at the prevalence of discrimination in Portland’s rental market since officials pledged “bold” action in the wake of the city’s first ever fair-housing audit, released in 2011.
The latest figures add credence to the old report, which city officials and landlords dismissed as unreliable. The 2011 audit reported that Latino and black renters faced differential treatment in 32 of 50 tests, or 64 percent.
Yet in the face of new statistics, Saltzman said Portland officials will back away from the City Council’s so-far-unsuccessful pledge from 2011 to conduct fair-housing testing every year.
“We are going to continue to do this. It’s probably not going to be an annual basis, but at least every other year,” Saltzman said. “If that’s a deviation from our plan, then I guess I’m announcing a deviation from our plan.”
The Fair Housing Council of Oregon conducted Portland’s audit testing as part of a $70,000 contract. Executive Director Pegge McGuire said even one instance of differential treatment is too much and she’s “absolutely” disappointed Saltzman doesn’t want to pay for annual testing.
Audit testing works by pairing two prospective renters who each seek housing from the same landlord, with one renter white and one from a protected class. Testers share similarities, such as age, gender and income, to help reveal if they are treated differently based on other factors — such as race or disability.
Because most forms of discrimination are no longer overt, housing experts consider audit testing as an effective way to measure subtle bias. Testers track whether landlords provide the same pricing, units or availability, among other things.
In Portland, fair housing officials conducted 51 tests between October 2013 and December 2014. Across all categories, testers reported differential treatment in 19 of 51 cases, or 37 percent. Latinos faced barriers in seven of 12 tests; blacks in five of 13; families in four of 14; and people with disabilities in three of 12.
Fair housing officials recommended follow-up testing in each of the 19 incidents with positive results, plus eight inconclusive tests.
But because of limited vacancies in Portland’s white-hot rental market, just 12 follow-up tests occurred – all at locations that had already tested positive. During re-testing, four cases again were labeled positive for differential treatment, all involving Latinos.
As an example, two housing providers required prospective Latino renters to provide additional documentation or extra deposits if they couldn’t produce a Social Security card that had been issued earlier than the past five years. In another case, a Latina tester was asked for her Social Security number to run a credit check immediately, but the white tester wasn’t.
McGuire said her agency will file a formal complaint by May with the state against one landlord for discriminating against a prospective Latino renter. She declined to identify the alleged violation or the landlord.
Traci Manning, director of the Housing Bureau, said the complaint will make a splash that hopefully will remind landlords to follow federal fair housing laws.
“It’s a loud way to say, ‘This isn’t OK,'” Manning said.
Saltzman said he’s comfortable that just one case is being referred to the Bureau of Labor and Industries for enforcement action. Officials say others could follow.
Asked if Portland has a discrimination problem, Saltzman said: “I think we do. Yes. And I think most cities do. I’m not sure if I could name one that doesn’t.”
But city officials stressed that audit testing alone isn’t the solution.
“We know there’s a problem,” Saltzman said. “It’s what we do about it that’s more important.”
Manning said the city will lean on a Fair Housing Advocacy Committee — which could be disbanded next year — or other citizen volunteers to help craft solutions. Other outreach efforts include working with the Community Alliance of Tenants and landlord trainings offered by the Fair Housing Council.
While those trainings have been helpful, particularly in raising awareness about rules for disabled tenants, Manning said that no amount of work will fully eradicate problems underscored in the new audit.
“I don’t think we’re going to prevent all of that,” she said.
Deborah Imse, executive director of the landlord association Multifamily NW, declined an interview request Tuesday. In a statement, she said her group is still reviewing results of the audit.
“Audits by nature are designed to gauge how a system is working and identify potential areas of improvement,” she wrote. “We are committed to providing fair housing opportunities to our current and potential residents, as well as the broader communities we serve.”
Although city officials said audit testing is time-consuming and difficult in a tight rental market, McGuire said the Fair Housing Council of Oregon could pull it off in the year ahead.
McGuire said she’d like to see the City Council spend some of its multi-million budget surplus in the upcoming fiscal year to help root out housing discrimination.
“That would be great,” she said, “if they’d spend some of that on audit testing.”
— Brad Schmidt
Source: Oregon Live
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