Agent Charged With Racial Steering

An Atlanta area real estate agent used race to steer white and black Americans posing as prospective home buyers to different neighborhoods, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said Tuesday.

HUD has charged real estate agent Rodney Foreman with racial steering. His former employer, Coldwell Banker-Joe T. Lane Realty Inc., of Jonesboro, Ga., has also been charged with Fair Housing Act violations, HUD said.

From HUD's press release:

Foreman's discriminatory actions were exposed during undercover testing by the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), a fair housing organization with 20 years of experience in fair housing testing. NFHA sent white and African-American testers to Coldwell Banker-Joe T. Lane Realty, Inc., posing as potential homebuyers looking to relocate to the Atlanta area. Foreman allegedly refused to show white testers homes in African-American neighborhoods and made derogatory statements about black residents. Foreman allegedly told one of the white testers that he had two sets of listings--one for white homebuyers and another for African-Americans.