Also known as testers or housing discrimination investigators. Testing refers to the process of monitoring the housing market to determine the nature and extent of discriminatory treatment accorded to homeseekers. Two individuals, alike in every aspect except the variable being tested, are sent to the same rental or sales office. These testers play the role of homeseekers - persons looking for a housing unit in which to live.
Testers make objective reports of what transpires.
Testers must be objective, careful observers, accurate reporters, and truthful witnesses. Any differences in treatment may form the basis for the successful resolution of a housing discrimination complaint. The testing process has been consistently supported by federal courts as a legitimate, necessary method to identify practices of unlawful housing discrimination. Testing provides compelling, objective evidence which verifies a homeseeker's experience with discrimination. Both the sworn oral testimony and the actual written reports of testers are routinely accepted by courts as evidence of discriminatory conduct by a defendant.