The heating in her apartment was acting up and her knee problems made carrying groceries up the stairs difficult. So, Gloria Adkins had gone with a friend to look at an apartment in Black Rock, planning to ask the landlord if he had anything else available.
After he said he did, she steeled herself to ask the all-important question: Did he take Section 8, a federal program that helps poor people pay their rent? She remembers him saying no: too much hassle, too much paperwork.
Most people would have let it go. But Adkins knew that refusing to rent to somebody because they receive Section 8 is a violation of Buffalo’s fair housing law. She filed a complaint with Housing Opportunities Made Equal, a local fair housing organization. HOME’s undercover testing showed that what happened to her wasn’t a one-off, and passed these findings on to the city’s fair housing officer.
Almost two years later, Adkins is still waiting to hear back.
Buffalo’s fair housing law was put in place to protect the thousands of city residents who rely on government assistance to pay their rent. But, in the 12 years since the law passed, the city has done little to enforce it, despite receiving at least 25 complaints like the one Adkins filed, most of them borne out by undercover testing – the gold standard in housing discrimination cases.
You can read the full Investigative Post story here.