August 25, 2011

In addition to the news articles mentioned in our Fair Housing Update below, the Oregonian Editorial Board weighed in this morning in "Crying racism on rentals":

"Commissioner Nick Fish, who oversees the Portland Housing Bureau, has spent months working with many key groups, including the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, to prepare a plan that blends training and education of landlords with annual, unannounced tests of leasing offices and mom-and-pop landlords, backed by enforcement...And that's why the flawed audit is so frustrating to people such as Fish, who have worked on housing discrimination for years. There are landlords in this city - in every American community - who won't rent to racial minorities. A real and trustworthy audit of Portland rentals would have helped expose them. This one, though, gave them more cover."