Report: Rental discrimination keeps black families out of certain Memphis neighborhoods
by: Zaneta Lowe
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — 62-year-old Deniese Smith is a Memphis native who recently relocated back to the MidSouth. The grandmother told NewsChannel 3 she’s still getting used to her neighborhood and being back in her hometown, so she certainly wasn’t prepared to pack up and move.
“I was trying to get settled,” said Smith.
But when Smith’s lease came to an end at the Village of Sycamore Ridge, she was placed on a month-to-month, then given 60 days to vacate after her landlord decided not to renew.
Smith told us she simply wanted an explanation, “I didn’t ask them to give me anything. I pay on time every month.”
She told WREG, “I’m in the process of looking for a place. It’s so hard to find because I only have rental history for a year here.”
Smith is now searching for something both affordable and safe.
“If you’re in an environment that, that’s all they doing is shooting, you got to hit the floor so hopefully you won’t get hit by a bullet. I can’t do that. These legs ain’t no good,” said Smith to WREG.
Smith is supposed to be out by the end of October. The front of her Northeast Memphis apartment was full of boxes when we visited. While there, Smith showed WREG some of the problems she’s been living with, including a leak that’s left her floors and carpet soaking wet.
“I just need God to do what he do best for me, you know, open up some doors,” said Smith as she wiped tears from her eyes.
Hope and faith is what Smith is relying on to keep a roof over her head, but new research uncovered by the WREG Investigators reveals she may not have as many choices for quality housing.
“The elevator’s broken. The water is not working. The heat is out. It’s the dead of winter and the heat is out,” said Chenise Anthony, who serves as the Executive Director of the Fair Housing Council of Metropolitan Memphis.
Those are just some of the complaints the agency has gotten during its first year of operation. Of the more than 170 complaints alleging housing discrimination, the majority have come from under-resourced and predominantly black neighborhoods.
“You’d be talking North Memphis. We could be talking Smoky City. We could be talking Binghampton, New Chicago, South Memphis, much of South Memphis, Whitehaven,” explained Anthony.
The latter two zip codes of 38126 and 38116 contributed more intakes than any other neighborhoods, according to FHCMM data.
This prompted the organization which investigates violations of the Fair Housing Act to conduct its first audit.
Anthony explained to the WREG Investigators, “There were tests created and they ran tests, and they sent secret shoppers to these areas, and they recorded what realtors did, how housing providers treated them.”
The results revealed that, even for those who can afford to live where they want, the American dream isn’t always a reality.
Anthony said, “You can go to college. You can go to law school like I did, and you can still go to an open house and have a door slammed in your face.”
The findings are all compiled in a report titled, ‘When Choice Isn’t An Option: Racial Disparities in Housing Mobility Across Memphis’.
It shows that when testers with similar income requested the same type of housing, 57 percent of the time, black and white testers were treated differently.
“The data shows that if you’re going if we send someone white to an apartment in North Memphis, they may be treated differently than a black tester or Latino tester,” explained Anthony.
One of the examples in the testing showed that when a black tester inquired about rental discounts at a property, they were told it was tied to employment at certain companies.
Meanwhile, the white tester was told they could get a $500 discount on the first month’s rent since they toured with the community manager. According to the report, both testers toured with the community manager, and neither was asked where they worked or which companies qualified for the discount.
The audit outlined another case in which a black and white tester both toured a property in December 2024.
The black tester, who needed to move in by early February, was told there were no move-in dates until the end of that month.
The white tester, however, was told a unit could be available in January and three more in early February.
Anthony says differential treatment also surfaces when housing providers ask questions of only certain potential tenants, especially single women.
“So sometimes it’s the questions. When you see familial status, oftentimes it’ll ask you how many kids do you have? So, are you married? What about her father? Besides the fact that that’s none of your business? Those questions can actually indicate discrimination,” said Anthony.
FHCMM’s testing also revealed cases of what’s called steering.
Anthony gave WREG an example.
“I’d like to buy a house in Germantown. I like to rent an apartment in Collierville. Well, maybe you’d be more comfortable in Hickory Hill,” she explained.
Anthony also said, “It’s not just how you look, sometimes it’s how you pay.”
The audit also found that in nearly 30 percent of the tests, renters with housing choice vouchers weren’t given the same housing opportunities as those without.
Anthony says their findings provide facts for what housing attorneys and advocates have long said, which is that patterns of discrimination are still being perpetuated in Memphis, which keeps black and brown folks, as well as immigrant families, in historically under-resourced and sometimes unsafe communities that even money can’t always buy them out of.
“We’re asking you to treat people with dignity and respect, whether they live like you, whether they look like you, whether they worship like you or not. It’s not that hard,” said Anthony.
The FHCMM developed a number of recommendations in their report regarding how local leaders can work to prevent housing discrimination, including strengthening fair housing education and enforcement, as well as investing in affordable housing choice in all communities.
In the meantime, Anthony says they’ll continue to investigate claims and consider enforcement action against violators, which could include taking cases to HUD, the state Attorney General, or federal court.
To report housing discrimination, you can contact the Fair Housing Council of Metropolitan Memphis at (901) 538-7700.