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Following a report from Suffolk University Law School that found widespread racism among apartment brokers in Greater Boston, two of the state’s largest real estate agent trade groups are calling for changes.
Suffolk sent Black and white testers, who were equal in every way except for their race – including credit score, income, gender identity, and other factors – to express interest in apartment listings across Greater Boston’s urban core between August 2018 and August 2019. Half of all white testers and half of all Black testers were instructed to inform the apartment broker they planned to use a Section 8 voucher to pay for the unit. The research found that brokers showed far fewer units to Black testers, provided worse customer service to Black testers and frequently “ghosted” Black market-rate testers and all Section 8 voucher-equipped testers.
It is illegal for Massachusetts landlords and real estate agents to discriminate against prospective tenants on the basis of race or source of income.
“The discrimination outlined in this report is both alarming and unacceptable. We are reviewing the specific recommendations outlined in the report, but we support all fair housing practices, equality, and inclusion,” Massachusetts Association of Realtors 2020 President Kurt Thompson said in an email to Banker & Tradesman. “We require our members to follow a strict code of ethics. We are committed to continuing to improve and uplift real estate practices in Massachusetts to help ensure that all consumers are treated fairly. We are committed to fighting discrimination and systemic racism in our industry wherever we find it.”
Greater Boston Real Estate Board CEO Greg Vasil called for Suffolk to release the names of the apartment brokers who discriminated against Black and Section 8 testers.
“We’re always ready and willing to help, but unless they name names at companies it’s almost impossible for us to determine if these people are our members,” he said. “If we’re falling down with people who belong to our organization, we want to know that.”
Both Vasil and Thompson noted that their organizations do not represent all agents – Thompson estimated the state has only 25,000 Realtors out of its roughly 80,000 licensed real estate agents – and defended their organizations’ training programs.
“People who are outside this network need to be reached, and their employers need to step up,” Vasil said, but acknowledged that some of the industry’s smaller firms either saw joining Realtor groups as too costly or believed that they didn’t provide enough value.
Thompson said MAR would “continue to analyze the discrimination identified in the report and identify structural and legislative changes, for MAR to champion.”
MAR also plans to conduct a new round of implicit bias training with its members, Thompson said, and was committed to educating the public about their rights as they search for housing, which would help more complaints come before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, which is charged with investigating housing discrimination.
Vasil criticized the Suffolk report’s call for stricter enforcement of existing Fair Housing laws, calling the study a “gotcha report” and questioning how such an approach could be funded given the state’s uncertain fiscal situation. Both Vasil and Thompson called for a cooperative effort with housing advocates and state officials to chart a way forward to reduce discrimination in the rental housing industry.
Suffolk Law School Professor Bill Berman, who heads the Suffolk program that produced the report, defended the report and its call for enhanced enforcement using testing.
“We weren’t testing [individual] brokers. We designed the study to replicate the kind of housing search most people would go through,” he said. “We were looking for typical business practice.”
Whatever regulatory response is ultimately crafted, it must include testing to help enforce existing laws, Berman said.
“Testing is important because the culture needs to change. People need to know they’re being monitored,” he said.
