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Showing posts from July, 2012

Round and Round the “Steering” Wheel Goes for Allentown, Pennsylvania

As we have reported previously, discrimination is alive and well in our communities, as the community of Allentown, Pennsylvania, discovered. The Morning Call, a local newspaper, reports that a housing “sting” operation revealed that real estate agents treated white and minority home buyers differently in 73 percent of cases, steering white buyers to the suburbs and minorities to the city, even when they each had the same job history and income. These actions, known as “steering”, are illegal under the federal fair housing act. County officials state that this practice could have damaged Allentown's economic development for decades, draining income and diversity from city neighborhoods. The Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, with Allentown's help, organized the fair housing test after years of hearing anecdotes of housing discrimination, said Alan Jennings, executive director of the CACLV. "Next time, we're not going to hold a press conference,"