Three real estate brokerages that conduct business on Long Island will pay $115,000 in total to address discriminatory practices under a settlement with New York State.
Keller Williams Greater Nassau, Keller Williams Realty Elite and Laffey Real Estate will also be required to undertake fair housing training under the deal Governor Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James announced on Tuesday, August 30. The settlement came after a Newsday investigation that uncovered discriminatory housing practices that violated Fair Housing laws, such as racial steering.
In light of the 2019 Newsday report, which was the result of a three-year investigation using undercover paired testers, the office of the attorney general and the Department of State launched their own parallel investigations. “These investigations found that agents associated at these firms steered prospective homebuyers of color away from white neighborhoods and subjected them to different requirements than white homebuyers, and otherwise engaged in biased behavior,” a press release from the governor’s office stated.
Paired testing works by sending to a real estate office a white tester posing as a homebuyer and separately sending a minority tester, with the same homebuying and mortgage qualifications as the white tester.
Newsday recorded real estate agents who demonstrated preferential treatment to white homebuyers, disparaged neighborhoods with minority populations and directed homebuyers of color to neighborhoods where residents predominantly belonged to communities of color. For example, in Huntington, Laffey Real Estate was found to have required a potential Black homebuyer to obtain a preapproval letter from a mortgage lender before he was shown a home, while the same standard was not applied to a white homebuyer. And in an incident involving a Keller Williams agent, the agent warned a white potential homebuyer against a particular neighborhood, citing recent gang violence, but then proceeded to tell a Black potential homebuyer that the same area has “the nicest people.”
Laffey Real Estate is required to pay $30,000 to the state and $35,000 to Suffolk County to conduct unannounced fair housing testing of its agents at branches and must create an online complaint form for potential buyers and sellers to report any potential instances of discrimination.
Keller Williams Greater Nassau and Keller Williams Realty Elite are required to pay $25,000 to Suffolk County to promote enforcement of and compliance with fair housing laws and must also spend up to $25,000 on fair housing courses and trainings for agents.
The Department of State has also taken action against individual licensed agents, which included the revocation of a license belonging to a former Keller Williams Greater Nassau agent and a fine against a former Keller Williams Realty Elite agent.
“With these actions, we’re delivering a forceful message: New York State has zero tolerance for discrimination,” Hochul said. “Here in New York, we firmly believe that housing is a human right, and I thank Attorney General James and Secretary of State Rodriguez for their work to enforce our laws and protect that right for all New Yorkers.”
James added: “Efforts to discriminate against any New Yorker’s fair access to housing cannot, and will not, be tolerated. These investigations have uncovered a pervasive culture of allowing unlawful discrimination and violations of every New Yorker’s right to fair housing. These settlements should send a clear message: If you discriminate and deny New Yorkers their basic right to housing, we will take action.”
Staff Writer on Aug 31, 2022