New York budget deal boosts funding for housing discrimination testing

A neighborhood in Nassau County shown in 2020. Credit: Newsday/John Keating

By Michael Gormleymichael.gormley@newsday.com @GormleyAlbanyUpdated April 19, 2024

ALBANY — A provision of the state budget now being adopted nearly doubles the funding for a program that tests to make sure real estate agents and landlords don’t discriminate by race when New Yorkers try to rent or buy homes.

“Hopefully, this is a deterrent, knowing that individuals can be spot-checked,” Assemb. Michaelle Solages (D-Elmont), the Assembly deputy majority leader, told Newsday. “It really helps enhance the awareness of fair housing rights and responsibilities.”

The state’s testing program was prompted by Newsday’s “Long Island Divided” investigative series in 2019 about discriminatory practices by real estate agents.

The 2024-25 state budget the legislature is adopting this week will add $2 million for testing in communities statewide, increasing the fund to nearly $5 million. Testing aims to determine whether real estate agents, landlords and others involved in providing housing discriminate against New Yorkers by keeping them out of communities based on factors such as race.

Solages, a prime sponsor of the funding increase, said the need for testing is urgent as the state embarks on an effort to create thousands more apartments and houses to combat a housing affordability crisis, which is acute on Long Island.

“We can build more housing, but if people are not able to get into homes in a fair way, we are still going to have an issue, especially for those with limited sources of income,” Solages said.

Newsday’s "Long Island Divided" series used testers and hidden cameras to record how some real estate agents treated clients differently based on race and how some steered clients of color away from predominantly white suburbs. The series detailed patterns and practices of racial discrimination through “redlining” and the steering of clients based on race.