Watchdog: apartments biased against black hurricane evacuees

[Thom Little]

A fair-housing watchdog has accused five apartment complexes in Texas, Florida and Alabama of discriminating against Hurricane Katrina evacuees who are black.

The complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development were based on a telephone survey by the National Fair Housing Alliance.

The group said white callers posing as hurricane victims were treated more favorably than black applicants in 66 percent of its inquiries.

NFHA president Shanna Smith said the organization used linguistic profiling to choose its testers, saying the test makes the race of the caller "pretty clear."

The report, released Tuesday, said blacks were less frequently told about available apartments, didn't have phone messages returned as promptly and generally had a more difficult time getting information from agents.

The complaints against three apartment complexes in Dallas, one in Birmingham, Ala., and one in Gainesville, Fla., also ranged from whites receiving lower rates to apartment agents informing black callers of no availability, moments after telling white callers that units were available.


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SOU_KATRINA_HOUSING_COMPLAINT_ALOL-?SITE=VARIT&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-12-22-20-52-15

[rodeodance]

1. treating people with dignity is all they ask.