Steering

Steering - Discriminatory And Prohibited

As part of their profession, residential real estate agents guide their clients into homes they feel would best correspond to their clients’ tastes and needs. Consciously or unconsciously, the agent’s biases and prejudices may influence the areas and neighborhoods they think will be appropriate for their client. Unfortunately, they may “steer” their clients to neighborhoods or areas they feel are appropriate for their client, given their ethnic background or identity as part of another minority group.

What Is Steering?

In real estate, steering is the practice of guiding prospective homeowners or occupants to certain neighborhoods or away from other neighborhoods or areas based on their identity as part of a protected class such as race.

Why Is Steering Discriminatory?

The practice of steering is inherently discriminatory, and may deprive someone from finding the home they would have preferred, or would have best suited their needs. The reason is the client is first presented with choices based on their identity as part of a class of people that has been discriminated against. The practice also perpetuates segregations of classes of people to certain areas.

Steering Is Prohibited In the United States

As part of the ongoing effort to end discrimination, steering has been outlawed in the United States. On the federal level, steering has been outlawed through the series of legislation that constitutes the Fair Housing Act which specifies the protected classes of people.

Fair Housing Protected Classes

The Fair Housing Act defines protected classes as:

Steering has also been outlawed through legislation on the state level. For example, California has outlawed steering as part of the Unruh Civil Rights Act that was enacted in 1959. The law regulates discrimination by businesses in California which encompasses real estate brokerage.

Additional discriminatory practices that have been outlawed in the United States include redlining and blockbusting.