HUD grant will be used to fight housing discrimination

Erin Neff

Friday, Nov. 27, 1998 | 11:19 a.m.

The Nevada Fair Housing Center in Las Vegas has received a $205,000 federal grant to investigate claims of housing discrimination, especially against the newest wave of immigrants.

In announcing $11.5 million in similar grants awarded nationwide, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Andrew Cuomo said the money will enforce the 1968 Fair Housing Act.

"Where you live often determines the pattern of discrimination," Cuomo said Wednesday during a telephone conference from Washington, D.C. "If we're going to stop this cycle, we have to learn to live together."

The local funds, provided under HUD's Fair Housing Initiatives Program, are slated to educate people about their rights and to "test" landlords, lenders, real-estate agents and insurance companies for discrimination.

During testing, people of different backgrounds -- based on their race, ethnicity, family status, sex, religion or disability -- pose as prospective renters or homebuyers, according to Kenneth LoBene, HUD coordinator in Nevada. If landlords, lenders or real-estate agents show bias -- readily approving, for example, a white person and deny a minority with similar credentials -- the agency can take action.

"Many people don't know that they have options available to them," LoBene said.

The grant was awarded in part based on the organization's proposals to handle discrimination against people who emigrated from some of the current top countries of origin.

Those countries include Mexico, the Philippines, Korea, India, Jamaica, El Salvador, Afghanistan, the Dominican Republic and Cuba.

While more than 85 percent of immigrants in 1900 were white Europeans, just 16 percent of immigrants in 1996 were white Europeans.

Since 1993, HUD has received some 44,000 fair housing complaints, which resulted in more than $150 million in settlements and court judgments.

In May, Frey Development Corp. of Las Vegas agreed to pay $37,500 to settle a housing discrimination complaint involving a 168-unit condominium complex that was not accessible to people with disabilities.

"Historically housing has been seen as a black and white issue," Cuomo said. "Now it's black, white, brown, red and yellow. We have a whole new age and environment of immigration in this nation."

The Nevada Fair Housing Center grant was the only awarded statewide. Agencies in 40 other cities nationwide received the grants, which are renewable next year.