Pilot Same-Sex Couples Fair Housing Study UNCG Center for Housing and Community Studies
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
i | P a g e Pilot Same-Sex Couples Fair Housing Study UNCG Center for Housing and Community Studies Pilot Same-Sex Couples Fair Housing Study Report to the Human Relations Department - City of Greensboro Dr. Stephen J Sills, Director Joyce Clapp and Melissa Roberts, Project Coordinators ii | P a g e UNCG Center for Housing and Community Studies CENTER FOR HOUSING AND COMMUNITY STUDIES The University of North Carolina at Greensboro Suite 3605 Moore Humanities and Research Administration Building Greensboro, NC 27402-6170 VOICE :336.944.6145 EMAIL :[email protected] The Center for Housing and Community Studies (CHCS) was incorporated on February 2015 as a university-based research, evaluation, and technical assistance center. We fulfill our research agenda through technical assistance to governmental and nonprofit agencies as well as the preparation of working papers, research notes, and scholarly publications. As part of its mission, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Center for Housing and Community Studies is committed to investigating and understanding how the social, economic, environmental and spatial aspects of home and neighborhood affect people’s health, well-being, and life course. We are actively engaged in funded studies of impediments to fair housing, continuum of care for the homeless, housing market trends and market segmentation studies, county and regional community planning, and studies of the impact of housing on health. CHCS currently has a staff consisting of sixteen researchers, assistants, and interns including: two PhD-level research methodologists in Sociology, one PhD candidate in Geography, two MS candidates in Information Systems and Supply Chain Management, three affiliated graduate researchers (Columbia, University of Delaware, and NC State), and eight research assistants working on BAs in Sociology, Criminology, Geography, Public Health, Religious Studies, and Human iii | P a g e UNCG Center for Housing and Community Studies Development and Family Studies. The Center regularly collaborates with faculty in Geography, Political Science, Public Health, Nursing, Economics, Information Systems and Supply Chain Management, Nutrition, and Communication Studies. CHCS is a member organization in the UNCG Institute for Data, Evaluation, and Analytics (IDEA) and has partnered with the UNCG Center for New North Carolinians (CNNC), the UNCG Center for Youth, Family, and Community Partnerships, the Institute for Community and Economic Engagement (ICEE) on grants and research projects. The first year of operation saw contracts and grants awarded from the City of High Point, Community Housing Solutions, the Hinton Rural Life Center in Hayesville, NC, the City of Greensboro, the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, the Adam Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the UNCG Office of Undergraduate Research, and an InvestHealth Grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Reinvestment Fund. The CHCS staff has been working to identify substandard homes, weak housing markets, vacant and abandoned lots and buildings, systemic inequality, and other community conditions that impact the quality of life of residents. Recent projects also include the use of advanced data visualization and mapping. We have conducted HUD Fair Housing Assessments and Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice, as well as paired-testing studies. The Center is equipped in many forms of in-person and remote quantitative and qualitative data collection: one-on-one interviews, focus groups, telephone interviews, postal mail surveys, electronic/web-based surveys, and computer-assisted in-person or telephone surveys. We are also able to assist with sample design, questionnaire development, qualitative and quantitative data analysis and reporting, as well as data mapping. Our team can conduct geospatial modeling and analysis, programming (Python, SQL, JavaScript, SAS, Html and CSS), web services and API configuration, as well as database development and management. We are experienced in the design and implementation of formative and summative program evaluation, Asset-Based Community Development, Success Case Method (SCM) evaluation, needs assessment and asset mapping, and housing policy analysis. More about CHCS may be found at https://chcs.uncg.edu/ iv | P a g e UNCG Center for Housing and Community Studies v | P a g e Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Testing Housing Markets for Discrimination on the Basis of Sexuality .................................... 3 History of Fair Housing Methods ............................................................................................... 3 Face-to-Face Fair Housing Audit Studies ............................................................................... 4 Strengths and Limitations of Face-to-Face Audits ................................................................. 6 Housing Audit Studies for Sexuality .......................................................................................... 8 Fair Housing Studies Using Email Audits .................................................................................. 9 Benefits and Limitations of Fair Housing Email Audits ...................................................... 12 Housing Discrimination in Greensboro.................................................................................... 12 Phase I: Correspondence Testing .................................................................................................. 14 Sample....................................................................................................................................... 14 Email Inquiries .......................................................................................................................... 15 Pairings ..................................................................................................................................... 16 Email Templates ....................................................................................................................... 16 Limitations ................................................................................................................................ 17 Analysis and Findings ............................................................................................................... 18 Access ................................................................................................................................... 18 Cost ....................................................................................................................................... 25 Information ........................................................................................................................... 33 Encouragement ..................................................................................................................... 40 Other Findings .......................................................................................................................... 45 Mis-gendering ....................................................................................................................... 45 Auto-reply Messages ............................................................................................................ 46 vi | P a g e UNCG Center for Housing and Community Studies Phase II: Face-To-Face Testing .................................................................................................... 48 Recruitment ............................................................................................................................... 48 Training ..................................................................................................................................... 48 Testing....................................................................................................................................... 49 Property Selection ..................................................................................................................... 49 Face-to-Face Testing Protocol .................................................................................................. 49 Limitations ................................................................................................................................ 50 Analysis and Findings ............................................................................................................... 51 Access ................................................................................................................................... 51 Cost ....................................................................................................................................... 51 Information ........................................................................................................................... 55 Encouragement ..................................................................................................................... 57 Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 62 Phase I ....................................................................................................................................... 62 Access ..................................................................................................................................