Fair Housing Enforcement and Changes in Discrimination between 1989 and 2000: An Exploratory Study

Using paired testing data from the 1989 and 2000 Housing DiscriminationStudies (HDS) and data on fair housing enforcement activities during the 1990s inthe corresponding metro areas, we investigate whether 1989-2000 changes in themetropolitan incidence of racial/ethnic discrimination correlate with fair housingenforcement activity during the 1990s. We found that higher amounts of state andlocal enforcement activity supported by HUD through its FHIP and FHAP pro-grams (especially the amount of dollars awarded by the courts) were consistentlyassociated with greater declines in discrimination against black apartment-seekersand home-seekers. The evidence does not support similar conclusions for housingmarket discrimination against Hispanics where the level of enforcement is muchlower.Journal of Economic Literature Classification: J15, K42, L85, R30Keywords: Housing Discrimination, Fair Housing Enforcement, and PairedTestingThe ideas in this paper do not necessarily represent the views of our Uni-versities, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or any otheragency of the Federal Government. The authors wish to thank the many peopleat the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Urban Institute, FHAssociates, Progressive Management Resources, and Abt Associates who helpedmake the 2000 HousingDiscriminationStudy a success. We also expressgratitudeto Fred Freiberg, Todd Richardson, and Cliff Schrupp for their invaluable assis-tance in obtaining fair housing enforcement data from various sources. Sarah Prattprovided helpful technical assistance regarding the TEAPOTS database. JackieCutsinger and Phyllis Seals at Wayne State University and Jason Cutsinger atCompuware Inc. supplied able research, production, and technical assistance.