I remember last semester during Property we studied the Fair Housing Act and learned about how rental advertisements can't state a preference based on race, national origin, gender, etc. Of course we talked about Craigslist, because if you've ever searched on there for an apartment, you know ads are posted all the time saying things like, "Female only," or "Asian only." (The two most common, in that order, I'd say.)
Anyway I just noticed that there's a new flagging function for discriminatory posts, with a link to a page that summarizes the FHA. I wonder how effective it is? When I saw a "females only" post, I thought, 'I should flag it.' But then I didn't because I thought, 'Well some girl might not reply to that post without the "females only."' It's hard too because 1) in a way, people should be able to choose who they live with, and 2) if the ad doesn't say it, that doesn't mean they're not discriminating in their choice. Which I guess is where discriminatory impact comes into play. On the other hand, isn't the publication of discriminatory ads just bad for society?
And I see they're being sued in Chicago.
Here's the CL link:
Discrimination Flagging
1 comment:
I don't know how I feel about those either. When I was looking for a roommate a few years back I really only wanted to live with a female. So I discriminated there. I also didn't want to live with anyone that had a child (though technically a child could have fit in the apartment) so I discriminated there. But I was looking for someone to share my living space rather then rent the entire living space for themselves.
I do feel that people who post whole apartments up for rent cannot say male/female or kids/no kids...but in a roommate situation i can't help but feel its needed.
On the other hand me and Mr. First Year were dicriminated against by several people when looking for a place to live. We wanted this gorgeous 3 bed 4 bath town house and the person declines to rent it to us because it was "perfect for a small family", regardless of the fact this it was perfect for just the 2 of us :(
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