African American and Latino discrimination complaints: comparing volume and outcomes

Objective Research has investigatedracial and ethnic discrimination in America without examining discrimination complaints or focusing on housing. To help fill this void, we explore volume and outcomes in Fair Housing Act complaints filed by African Americans and Latinos between 1989 and 2010 in order to compare enforcement by federal, state, and local civil rights agencies. Methods Relying on data obtained from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), we test a multivariate fixed effects logistic regression model. Results First, the data show that African Americans are more likely to file complaints than Latinos, but Latinos are slightly more likely to receive favorable outcomes. Second, an increased number of complaints filed per state capita by each group significantly increases the likelihood of a favorable outcome, but this effect is much smaller and weaker for African Americans than for Latinos. Third, local agencies are significantly more likely to provide favorable outcomes for Latinos than are federal or state agencies. Conclusion Taken together, these findings indicate that favorable outcome rates for African Americans are more stable than those for Latinos and that independent variables such as agency caseload and level of government agency produce much greater variance in the favorability rates for Latinos as compared to African Americans.