The grants we're awarding today will strengthen our partnership with local groups around the country working to put a stop to this outrageous conduct. The Fair Housing Act bars housing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, family status and national origin. The Act covers the sale, rental, financing and advertising of almost all housing in the nation. Unlike past years, today most immigrants to the United States are minorities. While 85 percent of immigrants were white Europeans in 1900, only 16 percent of immigrants were Europeans in 1996.
Studies show that minority immigrants experience worse housing conditions than European immigrants.
In addition, recent immigrants are less likely to he homeowners than earlier immigrants, and non-English speaking immigrants face special difficulties in understanding their fair housing rights. Cuomo said all types of housing discrimination are much harder to detect today than they were years ago, making it more important than ever for HUD to work in partnership with local groups to root out illegal acts of discrimination. For example, landlords usually don't say openly that they don't rent to blacks or Hispanics - they just say there are no vacancies when a minority shows up. Then, miraculously, several vacancies suddenly appear when a white person walks in five minutes later. The grants, which are funded under HUD's Fair Housing Initiatives program will address sophisticated and subtle forms of discrimination through paired testing as well as other investigative tools.