Brokers Misrepresented Apartment Availability to Black Prospects

Facts: Prospective tenants and housing rights organization sued real estate brokers for housing discrimination. The brokers had previously rented an apartment to a white Latino man. When he sought a new apartment, the brokers initially told him they had rentals available. After they met the man's black wife, they told them there were no apartments available. The housing rights organization sent testers, both black and white, to the brokers' office on different occasions and found that apartments were made available to white testers but not to black testers, even if they presented higher incomes than the white testers. Courts: Tenants and housing rights organization win. They presented detailed documentation of the broker's discrimination. The brokers not only misrepresented the availability of rental apartments to blacks but steered them toward buying, rather than renting, apartments.

The Open Housing Ctr., Inc. v. Kessler Realty, Inc.: NYLJ, 12/20/01, p. 27, col. 6 (U.S. Ct. App. EDNY; Glasser, J)