After introductions, Brian Mackenzie leads the training session. In the audience, NVAR members improve their knowledge of fair housing regulations by understanding actual scenarios.

‘Secret Shoppers’ Search Out Discriminatory Actions

SECRET SHOPPERS IN REAL ESTATE? Yes, fair housing testers are secret shoppers for housing-opportunity violations, explained Brian McKenzie, training and compliance program manager for the Equal Rights Center (ERC) in Washington, D.C. McKenzie was the lead instructor at the April 3 Fair Housing Training Session and Luncheon at the Waterford Fair Oaks. Testers seek to determine that all prospects receive equal information about properties: equal treatment, rates and qualifications for listings, loans or tenancy. While the Civil Rights Act was critical in breaking a cycle of legal complacency around housing and employment discrimination, enforcement continues today.

"The Fair Housing Act is the tool that we need to promote fairness. Our work is always needed. Every community is only as strong as its weakest link." -Sara Pratt

Why is fair housing important, asked McKenzie? “It is a smart business practice, and it is law,” he explained. 

“The Fair Housing Act became law in April 1968, one week after Martin Luther King was assassinated. King was a huge advocate for housing, and this part of the law had passed around Congress for years,” said McKenzie. “Passing this law was a tribute to Dr. King’s legacy,” McKenzie said.

Community members, non-profits, housing advocates, Realtors®, and local government officials attended the Fairfax County Government Fair Housing Training and Luncheon. Hosted by the Fairfax County Human Rights Commission and the county’s Office of Human Rights and Equity Programs, the annual event was also sponsored by NVAR.

Disparate impact occurs when policies, practices, rules or other systems that appear to be neutral result in a disproportionate impact on a group.

ERC Deputy Director Kate Scott announced the results of a recent ERC lawsuit against the nation’s largest private landlord, Mid-America Apartments (MAA). Charges cited that MAA excluded housing applicants and violated their rights based on race and national origin when the applicants had certain criminal records, including felony convictions.

The court-mandated outcome now allows applicants with convictions flagged through MAA’s third-party service provider to provide additional information for MAA’s consideration of their applications.

“Realtors®, as professionals, must be diligent in how we conduct our business,” said NVAR President Christine Richardson. “Realtors® cannot honor illegal requests.”

Handling one client in the 1990s who did not understand the law, Richardson had to clarify her – and the client’s – role if they were to conduct business together.

“I listed a property for sale in Loudoun County near Dulles Airport,” she recalled.

“The seller was an older man. He was selling the property he had been in his whole life: a small rambler on one acre of land.

“My client told me that I wasn’t allowed to sell the property to any Arabs, which he pronounced with a long A. I told him that it was illegal – and frankly not smart – to limit the pool of potential buyers for his property in that way.

“The buyer of the property turned out to be a young man from Iran. At closing, my client refused to look at the buyer and communicated with the young man by saying to me, ‘Tell him such and such.’ I could not believe this behavior,” she said, emphasizing how awkward this closing was. The end- result was that the buyer ultimately sold that property for twice what he paid for it when Dulles Airport expanded its runway, she said.

Sara Pratt, the luncheon’s keynote speaker and counsel at Relman, Dane & Colfax, devotes her career to civil rights issues and community enrichment.

Having served as deputy assistant secretary for fair housing enforcement and programs at Housing and Urban Development (HUD), she is a dedicated fair housing advocate.

“The value of community means more and more to me,” she began, greeting 200 luncheon attendees. “We share common values and goals; we rely on each other as we work together.”

The Fair Housing Act passed after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, she noted, but the underlying concept for it resulted from ongoing “divisive issues,” referring to discriminatory practices for credit, housing options, education, employment and more.

“These are still issues that cry out for education, for enforcement, for conversation,” she said.

“We need to take what we are talking about to your communities – not just reasonable accommodations and modifications – but to build a stronger community,” she advised. Dismantling segregated communities is one of the law’s main goals.

HUD has investigated lenders during the last few years that violate the Fair Housing Act. Lenders are not allowed to refuse a mortgage because of a woman’s status of being on maternity leave, Pratt explained.

“A family that is expecting a [child] and wants to have a house ready to move into is told by a lender that they cannot get the loan until the mother goes back to work,” she said. “Lenders do that all the time. We [at HUD] handled 50 or more settlements against banks.”

Lenders need to view such employees as on temporary leave, according to protections in the Fair Housing Act. “The learning curve of the lending industry is not where it should be,” Pratt said.

“The Act is [also] used to protect victims of domestic abuse, as it will not allow a victim to be evicted,” she said. In a case where a woman was abused by a former boyfriend, the woman’s sister took the victim and her child into her home. The victim later killed her ex-boyfriend in self-defense. “The landlord moved to evict the victim’s sister,” Pratt said. “We invoked the Fair Housing Act to protect the tenant, as this was not her fault.”

In another case, a Pennsylvania landlord paid damages and changed his policy following an investigation of claims that he discriminated against immigrant applicants for apartments. HUD charged the landlord with implementing an illegal leasing policy that discriminated based on national origin when he refused to lease to refugees, Pratt explained.

“The Fair Housing Act is the tool that we need to promote fairness,” she said. “Our work is always needed. Every community is only as strong as its weakest link.”

Government, the business community and housing advocates must work together to provide a system that is fair for everyone. Creating integrated neighborhoods remains a work in progress. Realtors® are part of the solution to achieve them. “It takes conscientious, focused, and intentional work,” Pratt concluded.

To view event presentation slides, visit NVAR.com/presentations.