Syracuse is the ninth most segregated metropolitan area in the United States, resulting in housing segregation and discrimination.

Housing discrimination in Syracuse is just one aspect of CNY Fair Housing’s “The Changing Face of Opportunity” Conference and Luncheon on Wednesday held from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Syracuse. The half-day conference will also feature Slate Magazine’s Jamelle Bouie, civil rights attorney Michael Allen and housing consultant Alys Mann. There will also be a workshop geared toward the changing housing needs of people with disabilities, said Karen Schroeder, assistant director of CNY Fair Housing.

“We wanted to make it as interesting as possible,” Schroeder said. “Segregation and race relations are pretty topical at the moment and we thought this conference would be interesting.”

The main goal of the conference, which Schroeder expects to draw 150 people, is to educate people on their housing rights and responsibilities.

CNY Fair Housing is an independent, non-profit dedicated to eliminating housing discrimination through the law, educating the community on rights and responsibilities in the housing market and advocating for the creation and support of diverse neighborhoods.

CNY Fair Housing has done one conference similar to this one in the past, but wanted to do a conference based on their goals in housing and urban development.

CNY Fair Housing has dealt with discrimination, familial status issues and university neighborhood cases. There are increasing issues related to race and gender identities and sexual harassment. Most of the calls they receive are from the Syracuse community, Schroeder said.

“We get between 300–350 calls per year with complaints dealing with housing. Sixty percent of these calls are from folks with mental or physical disabilities,” Schroeder said.

Discrimination in housing is prevalent, said Yan Mei Jiang, a CNY Fair Housing public relations intern.

“People should be responsible for the way they are treated and learn the facts behind everything,” Jiang said. “I think it’s also important for every person in the community to know they have national as well as local rights in the place they live in.”

Citizens of Syracuse are a little more familiar with their rights as renters or homebuyers and are more willing to make a phone call, Schroeder said. She added that only 2 percent of all discrimination cases are ever reported, according to a national statistic.

“If people are very challenged with money, their choices are fairly limited. We have a lot of new Americans coming here who may not be familiar with their rights,” Schroeder said.

To help gage some discrimination cases, CNY Fair Housing sends out what they called “paired testers” to houses if they receive complaints from a neighborhood. They send out two people who look the same on paper. The only difference, for example, would be that one person would have children and the other wouldn’t. They then see if the testers are treated the same, said Schroeder.

Jiang added that she is looking forward to the segregation workshop during the conference.

Said Jiang: “I know that there is a lot of minorities living in Syracuse, and I want to learn more about the history of where minorities stay and about the discrimination that is occurring in the area.”

Published on November 19, 2014 at 12:01 am