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Housing Discrimination Against People Who Are Single: 4 Studies
In the first study, the choices were a married couple, a single woman, and a single man. If there were no bias, each would have been selected 33% of the time. Here are the actual results:
Study 1
70% married couple
18% single woman
12% single man
The married couple was favored overwhelmingly. (This result and all the others I will describe are statistically significant.)
(various combinations of hypothetical people were tested, with a hypothetical married couple being overwhelmingly preferred to almost all other hypothetical possibilities tested, e.g. single woman, single man, cohabiting couple, etc, read for specifics)
So what? A married couple will have dual income streams. A married couple will more likely stay together than just a cohabiting bf and gf.
However, when I've rented out my lower apartment, I prefer a single tenant with a professional career and without children. A married couple may be more likely to eventually have a baby.
Part of the premise of the study is flawed. At the time where a "real landlord" looks at a "real renter application" they cannot have any sort of guarantee that the single/couple/family will:
- stay for X years
- remain employed for X years
You simply do not know.
I could draw from my own experiences when deciding who to rent to:
1. When I was single, I split rent with a college friend. There was nothing tying me down. We happened to make it work though, but it could have easily turned for the worse and we would have bailed - leaving the landlord to find another tenant.
2. I lived with my girlfriend for 6 months in an apartment. Our financial situation wasn't all that great and that was place we wound up bailing after 6 months.
3. After we got better jobs, we got another apartment. She lost her job about 1 year in and things were very tight. All that kept us there was our refusal to quit. This could also have easily turned into us moving out and not paying the rent.
4. When we got married, we were committed to each other and to where we lived. Picking up and leaving wasn't exactly an option. Even with only one income, there was no option to fail.
5. And now that we have kids, our "mobility" (our ambition to move?) is near 0. We aren't going anywhere.
I don't see it as discriminatory in the slightest. On paper, it is easy to claim the study is comparing apples to apples, but it really isn't.
No where in there does it say that you are not allowed to pick the single over the family, or that the government forces people to pick the family over the single, just that most people did.
Did you even read your own links?
??? If a pattern of discrimination by a landlord is detected, they are likely to be sued. When you have two QUALIFIED applicants and you choose the single over the parent(s)-and-child you could be in a world of hurt unless you're renting out a 0BR or 1BR unit. You don't get to reject a qualified family for qualified singles.
Housing discrimination against singles absolutely does exist. I was approved for the first rental I applied for upon returning to the United States, but I was asked intrusive personal questions that I felt were inappropriate and would not have been asked of a married couple. I was probably charged a higher deposit too, though I can't prove that.
I rented this place for two years and was a stellar tenant...returned the property cleaner than I found it, no damage, rent paid on time every single month, no maintenance requests except for things that were actually broken. So we single women aren't all slobs with claws and fangs.
I bought my house four years ago in an older, inner-ring suburb with a more diverse population so it's not 100% 'family friendly', i.e. most houses in my neighborhood do not have young children but the #1 demographic moving into the neighborhood is young families or young married couples who haven't had kids yet. So I'm bucking the trend. I get that. However, it's not OK for realtors to knock on my door, ask me if I'm interested in selling, and when I tell them "No" they ask me if I think it's "fair" for a single woman like myself to "take up" a house that could house a family.
I find it hard to believe there would be actual discrimination in the rental market, all my landlords care about is that I pay the rent.
Discrimination happens when you have multiple qualified applicants at the same time e.g. if you come to your rental office to find three apps submitted under the door, and you can rent to only one, and you decide that a single(s)/white/male applicant is more qualified than a non-white/female/family.
Housing discrimination against singles absolutely does exist. I was approved for the first rental I applied for upon returning to the United States, but I was asked intrusive personal questions that I felt were inappropriate and would not have been asked of a married couple. I was probably charged a higher deposit too, though I can't prove that.
I rented this place for two years and was a stellar tenant...returned the property cleaner than I found it, no damage, rent paid on time every single month, no maintenance requests except for things that were actually broken. So we single women aren't all slobs with claws and fangs.
I bought my house four years ago in an older, inner-ring suburb with a more diverse population so it's not 100% 'family friendly', i.e. most houses in my neighborhood do not have young children but the #1 demographic moving into the neighborhood is young families or young married couples who haven't had kids yet. So I'm bucking the trend. I get that. However, it's not OK for realtors to knock on my door, ask me if I'm interested in selling, and when I tell them "No" they ask me if I think it's "fair" for a single woman like myself to "take up" a house that could house a family.
I got your "fair" right here!
FWIW, as a poor renter, I have entrertained the same angst as the Realtors. One person in a 3BR house means that several single people cannot live in the same house, and in the big picture (when many houses are occupied by one person), it sure does jack up the rent singles have to pay. This is one reason why I am that local governments do not allow small (1/2-person) houses on sall lots, only larger houses and lots whether one or ten live in it.
Discrimination happens when you have multiple qualified applicants at the same time e.g. if you come to your rental office to find three apps submitted under the door, and you can rent to only one, and you decide that a single(s)/white/male applicant is more qualified than a non-white/female/family.
I think you are confusing discrimination with choice.
You need to choose one, there is only one room, and every time you make a choice it shouldn't trigger a discrimination lawsuit. That's completely insane. There would be no rental market with your idea.
Discrimination happens when you have multiple qualified applicants at the same time e.g. if you come to your rental office to find three apps submitted under the door, and you can rent to only one, and you decide that a single(s)/white/male applicant is more qualified than a non-white/female/family.
That's called discretion. If you have three equally qualified tenants who do you choose? That issue has never come up for me.
FWIW, as a poor renter, I have entrertained the same angst as the Realtors. One person in a 3BR house means that several single people cannot live in the same house, and in the big picture (when many houses are occupied by one person), it sure does jack up the rent singles have to pay. This is one reason why I am that local governments do not allow small (1/2-person) houses on sall lots, only larger houses and lots whether one or ten live in it.
I don't see how my owning a 3-bedroom house jacks up your rent, that's absurd.
And even if it does, it's the free market at work.
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