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Saturday, December 22, 2012

No Sting: Feds Won't Go Undercover To Prove Housing Discrimination

The four-bedroom house advertised on Craigslist sounded like just what Claire Rembis and her husband had been looking for. It sat on two verdant acres with plenty of room for their seven home-schooled children to run and play. And the $850 monthly rent was much cheaper than the prices for other homes they'd looked at.

Rembis loaded her family into their Dodge van and drove the 80 miles from Dearborn to Hudson, Mich. After the landlord's brother showed them the property, they called the landlord and told her they "loved it."
Three days later, Rembis got a call from the landlord saying she was dropping by to see how the family lived. It seemed strange, but Rembis really wanted the house, so she agreed. The landlord looked around, noted how tidy Rembis kept her home, and then asked to meet her children.

"I notice you are a woman of color," the landlord said. "Are you concerned about living in that area?" Hudson is about 96 percent white, according to the U.S. Census. Rembis is biracial; her husband is white.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thinki if you own a property you should be able to who ever you want to. The government has no business in any private property transaction

Anonymous said...

It means that African Americans and Latinos who can afford to move to better neighborhoods are systematically blocked from doing so. They and their families are thus deprived of opportunities — from access to grocery stores with fresh vegetables to adequate health care to top-flight schools.

And why are they better? And why would they want to move?