ALICE’S FAIR HOUSING STORY
(This story is also available in Spanish and Chinese.)
“I was really sort of green and bright-eyed.” These are the words veteran civil rights attorney Alice uses to describe her early days doing fair housing work at Wang Hecker LLP.
When she first joined the firm in 2013, Alice, like most people, was not fully aware of the depth and scope of contemporary housing discrimination.
“People who don’t work in this field don’t get it. Honestly, even I didn’t get it. When people hear ‘fair housing’ or ‘housing discrimination,’ there’s this vague notion about a lack of fairness. People may have a sense, based on vague historical lessons. But part of what is so distressing about the need for this kind of litigation is just how real and common place discrimination is.”
After more than a decade of fair housing work, she admits to being a bit cynical. “To do this kind of work you generally have to expect that there’s a lot of wrongdoing out there.” But even after litigating more than a dozen fair housing cases, she says, “It remains surprising how pervasive and overt race discrimination is in housing. And how it happens in different neighborhoods and different boroughs at different price points.”
In one of her first cases, a broker in Queens was steering Black applicants away from a building while assuring white applicants that the landlord only wanted the “right kind” of people as tenants. He also claimed that the landlord required him to meet all applicants in person. But for a white tester who said his wife was unavailable to meet, the broker eagerly shared he had found a loophole. “He said, ‘Well, if you show me a photo, I feel comfortable saying I’ve met her,’” Alice remembers.
In reality, the tester was unmarried. “But he showed the broker a photo of a random white woman on his phone, and the broker just said, ‘Oh yeah, great.’” The in-person meeting requirement was a blatant smokescreen for racial gatekeeping. “I had trouble believing he had actually said that until I listened to the recording of the test.”
Even when race discrimination is less overt, Alice says, it presents itself in different forms. She sees source of income discrimination as being closely related to race and national origin discrimination, since it hurts voucher holders who are disproportionally Black and Latino. “It’s just the same beast by a different name.” Fortunately for her clients, source of income is a protected characteristic in New York State.
Another challenging aspect of her work is the aggressiveness of defendants and their attorneys. “These are really egregious allegations and the harm that has been inflicted is really severe. The interactions between lawyers can get difficult and emotional.” But she’s never fazed when her opponents become extra aggressive. “To me it’s a telltale sign when someone’s been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. They lash out, right?”
Despite the challenges, Alice finds the work inspiring. “I’m always struck by the power of people’s individual experiences and just how critical they are to this work.”
And even though housing discrimination persists, she takes great pride in knowing her work is making a difference. “I’m so grateful to do this work. Holding people accountable has been the highlight of my career.”
This newsletter is part of the FHJC’s My Fair Housing Story outreach initiative. To read the other stories in the series as they are published, click HERE or visit bit.ly/FHJCmfhs.
The mission of the FHJC, a nonprofit civil rights organization, is to eliminate housing discrimination, promote policies and programs that foster open, accessible, and inclusive communities, and strengthen enforcement of fair housing laws in the New York City region.