13.5.4 Racial Discrimination

Examples of racial discrimination actionable under the FHA include: delayed action on minority couple’s apartment application;1  refusal to show available apartments;2  “grudging” sales techniques;3  showing Black applicants fewer units and quoting them higher rents and later dates of availability;4  requirements that minority applicants be approved or recommended by current tenants or other neighbors;5  sales person’s influence of customer’s decision on racial grounds;6  refusal to amend zoning ordinance to allow construction of multifamily housing outside of urban renewal area;7  closing private road to Black neighbor but allowing whites to use it;8  providing poorer services over time period when white tenants being replaced by Black tenants;9  substandard conditions in public housing developments;10  poorer municipal services for Blacks;11  false representation of unavailability;12  vandalism of new Black resident’s property by white neighbor;13  intimidation tactics by local resident to discourage Jews from moving into town;14 and operation of segregated public housing and Section 8 housing programs in metropolitan area.15

• 1Davis v. Mansards, 597 F. Supp. 334 (N.D. Ind. 1984).
• 2Bradley v. John M. Brabham Agency, Inc., 463 F. Supp. 27 (D.S.C. 1978).
• 3United States v. Pelzer Realty Co., Inc., 484 F. 2d 438 (5th Cir. 1973).
• 4United States v. Balestrieri, 981 F. 2d 916 (7th Cir. 1992).
• 5Robinson v. 12 Lofts Realty, Inc., 610 F. 2d 1032 (2d Cir. 1979); Grant v. Smith, 574 F. 2d 252 (5th Cir. 1978).
• 6Zuck v. Hussey, 394 F. Supp. 1028 (E.D. Mich. 1975), aff’d, 547 F.2d 1168 (6th Cir. 1977).
• 7Huntington Branch, NAACP v. Town of Huntington, 844 F.2d 926 (2d Cir.), aff’d, 488 U.S. 15 (1988) (per curiam).
• 8Evans v. Tubbe, 657 F.2d 661 (5th Cir. 1981).
• 9Concerned Tenants Ass’n v. Indian Trails Apartments, 496 F. Supp. 522 (N.D. Ill. 1980).
• 10Durrett v. Hous. Auth. of the City of Providence, 896 F.2d 600 (1st Cir. 1990).
• 11Campbell v. City of Berwyn, 815 F. Supp. 1138 (N.D. Ill. 1993); cf. United Farm Workers of Fla. Hous. Project, Inc. v. City of Delray Beach, 493 F.2d 799 (5th Cir. 1974).
• 12Havens Realty Co. v. Coleman, 455 U.S. 363 (1982).
• 1342 U.S.C. § 3617; Stackhouse v. DeSatter, 620 F. Supp. 208 (N.D. Ill. 1985); see also Sofarelli v. Pinellas Cnty., 931 F. 2d 718 (11th Cir. 1991) (neighbors’ threats, obscenities, spitting).
• 14LeBlanc-Steinberg v. Fletcher, 781 F. Supp. 261 (S.D.N.Y. 1991).
• 15Walker v. HUD, 912 F.2d 819 (5th Cir. 1990).