Multidimensional Discrimination in the Online Rental Housing Market: Implications for Families with Young Children

• In Event: 4144 - Emerging Frontiers in Research on Discrimination

Abstract

A half century after the Fair Housing Act, a wide range of experimental, ethnographic, and observational research continues to document the persistence of racial discrimination in the housing market. While the prevalence of overt racism has declined, exclusionary practices continue to limit housing opportunity for people of color, thereby reproducing racial inequality and residential segregation. This study leverages an online field experiment conducted in 31 cities to investigate the extent to which discrimination by race is exacerbated or mitigated by two other dimensions of identity for female home seekers: family structure and source of income. Consistent with prior work, our results indicate strong landlord bias against recipients of Section 8 housing vouchers—bias that is so strong it supercedes racial bias. Among messages not signaling use of a voucher, we find that black women and Latinas face statistically and substantively significant discrimination in the search for rental housing. We further show that the gap between white and non-white outcomes is compounded by family structure. Specifically, only blacks and Latinas are penalized for being single mothers.

Authors

• Jacob William Faber, New York University

• Marie-Dumesle Mercier, New York University