Long Island Board of Realtors creates education campaign on racial bias
The Long Island Board of Realtors added new resources to its website to educate the real estate industry about discrimination based on race and color. Credit: Newsday
The Long Island Board of Realtors has expanded its campaign dedicated to fighting housing discrimination to include educational resources related to bias based on race or color.
The nonprofit trade association’s Home for All of Us website includes information about housing rights for home seekers and the obligations of Realtors when helping people find a place to live.
The focus on racial discrimination is the latest extension of LIBOR’s Home for All of Us campaign, which began in 2022 with an emphasis on discrimination against people using government vouchers to pay for housing. It expanded last year to include disability discrimination.
LIBOR, which has members in Nassau, Suffolk and Queens, has spread the word about the website through visits to brokerages, emails and social media posts as well as meetings with local lawmakers, said Marlo Paventi, LIBOR’s senior director of public policy and government affairs.
The goal of the campaign is "to ensure individuals can choose where they live without facing discrimination due to race and color," she said.
The campaign followed Newsday’s 2019 Long Island Divided investigation into discrimination in the region’s housing market, which found evidence of widespread unequal and disparate treatment of would-be homebuyers of color. The investigation used paired testing, matching white, Black, Asian and Hispanic testers posing as homebuyers to engage with real estate agents.
Following the investigation, the New York State Department of State, which regulates real estate agents, revoked three agents’ licenses, suspended seven agents’ licenses and issued five fines between $500 and $2,000 — the maximum allowed under law, Newsday reported earlier this year.
"Given the many ways that discrimination based on race and color have shaped the history and housing patterns of Queens, Nassau and Suffolk Counties, we acknowledge that this effort will require a long-term commitment — and we are dedicated to delivering on that commitment," Doreen Spagnuolo, LIBOR’s CEO, said in a statement.
Ian Wilder, executive director of Bohemia-based Long Island Housing Services, praised the website and the effort by LIBOR to talk to its membership about combating discrimination. Wilder, who said the association asked him to weigh in on the campaign before rolling it out, said the website could be useful for real estate agents whose clients make requests that would violate fair housing laws.
"It gives real estate agents a higher authority to point to," he said.
Wilder said he has taught a continuing education course for Realtors in the past to explain how emphasizing adherence to fair housing laws can be a selling point for brokerages. He believes brokerages could attract clients as homebuyers become more diverse and young people prioritize spending money with businesses that support social justice.
"An individual real estate agency could separate themselves competitively by making fair housing a major part of what they say their mission is in the community and advertising that," he said.
The website provides a list of key definitions on issues, such as steering, when a real estate agent directs a homebuyer or renter to a specific neighborhood or doesn’t provide housing options in certain areas that meet the client’s criteria based on the person’s race or color.
The association defines race as one's belonging to a certain group or being perceived to belong to a group because of physical characteristics, while color is defined as the visible color and tone of a person’s skin.
The website also outlines the obligations of Realtors, owners, property managers, landlords and co-op boards to treat individuals equally. It highlights examples of discrimination, including using more stringent background requirements for people of color or telling a prospective tenant an apartment has been rented when it’s still available.
LIBOR highlights best practices, such as offering listings based only upon a client’s stated criteria and communicating only objective information about neighborhoods.
It recommends directing clients to third-party sources of information if they ask about school quality or neighborhood safety.
Real estate agents who expressed opinions about school districts to prospective homebuyers in Newsday’s Long Island Divided investigation were penalized in some cases, with penalties ranging from a $500 fine to a three-month suspension, because state administrative law judges said such comments can be a "proxy" for steering buyers based on race.
If a client asks an agent to exclude potential buyers or renters based on race, the agent should "act quickly to remove themselves from the situation and address the conduct," LIBOR writes on the website.
The Long Island Board of Realtors has expanded its campaign dedicated to fighting housing discrimination to include educational resources related to bias based on race or color.
The nonprofit trade association’s Home for All of Us website includes information about housing rights for home seekers and the obligations of Realtors when helping people find a place to live.
The focus on racial discrimination is the latest extension of LIBOR’s Home for All of Us campaign, which began in 2022 with an emphasis on discrimination against people using government vouchers to pay for housing. It expanded last year to include disability discrimination.
LIBOR, which has members in Nassau, Suffolk and Queens, has spread the word about the website through visits to brokerages, emails and social media posts as well as meetings with local lawmakers, said Marlo Paventi, LIBOR’s senior director of public policy and government affairs.
WHAT TO KNOW
- The Long Island Board of Realtors has created new resources related to housing discrimination based on race or color.
- The trade group’s website Home for All of Us offers details on the rights of home seekers and the obligations of real estate agents and landlords.
- The latest iteration expands upon the group’s work to address discrimination against people using housing vouchers and individuals with disabilities.
The goal of the campaign is "to ensure individuals can choose where they live without facing discrimination due to race and color," she said.
The campaign followed Newsday’s 2019 Long Island Divided investigation into discrimination in the region’s housing market, which found evidence of widespread unequal and disparate treatment of would-be homebuyers of color. The investigation used paired testing, matching white, Black, Asian and Hispanic testers posing as homebuyers to engage with real estate agents.
Following the investigation, the New York State Department of State, which regulates real estate agents, revoked three agents’ licenses, suspended seven agents’ licenses and issued five fines between $500 and $2,000 — the maximum allowed under law, Newsday reported earlier this year.
"Given the many ways that discrimination based on race and color have shaped the history and housing patterns of Queens, Nassau and Suffolk Counties, we acknowledge that this effort will require a long-term commitment — and we are dedicated to delivering on that commitment," Doreen Spagnuolo, LIBOR’s CEO, said in a statement.
Ian Wilder, executive director of Bohemia-based Long Island Housing Services, praised the website and the effort by LIBOR to talk to its membership about combating discrimination. Wilder, who said the association asked him to weigh in on the campaign before rolling it out, said the website could be useful for real estate agents whose clients make requests that would violate fair housing laws.
"It gives real estate agents a higher authority to point to," he said.
Wilder said he has taught a continuing education course for Realtors in the past to explain how emphasizing adherence to fair housing laws can be a selling point for brokerages. He believes brokerages could attract clients as homebuyers become more diverse and young people prioritize spending money with businesses that support social justice.
"An individual real estate agency could separate themselves competitively by making fair housing a major part of what they say their mission is in the community and advertising that," he said.
The website provides a list of key definitions on issues, such as steering, when a real estate agent directs a homebuyer or renter to a specific neighborhood or doesn’t provide housing options in certain areas that meet the client’s criteria based on the person’s race or color.
The association defines race as one's belonging to a certain group or being perceived to belong to a group because of physical characteristics, while color is defined as the visible color and tone of a person’s skin.
The website also outlines the obligations of Realtors, owners, property managers, landlords and co-op boards to treat individuals equally. It highlights examples of discrimination, including using more stringent background requirements for people of color or telling a prospective tenant an apartment has been rented when it’s still available.
LIBOR highlights best practices, such as offering listings based only upon a client’s stated criteria and communicating only objective information about neighborhoods.
It recommends directing clients to third-party sources of information if they ask about school quality or neighborhood safety.
Real estate agents who expressed opinions about school districts to prospective homebuyers in Newsday’s Long Island Divided investigation were penalized in some cases, with penalties ranging from a $500 fine to a three-month suspension, because state administrative law judges said such comments can be a "proxy" for steering buyers based on race.
If a client asks an agent to exclude potential buyers or renters based on race, the agent should "act quickly to remove themselves from the situation and address the conduct," LIBOR writes on the website.
Jonathan LaMantia covers residential real estate and other business news on Long Island. He previously covered the business of health care for Crain's New York Business.
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