The Fair Housing Laws are not meant to dissuade folks from choosing communities with specific residential make-ups. Rather, they are meant to make sure that apartment management does not dissuade specific classifications of residents from applying. We have had more than a few instances in this country of owners and management discriminating against various subgroups.
Consider this possible exchange:
--Potential Resident: "What type of people live here?"
--Apartment Manager: "100% of our residents are good, hard-working white folks."
It is for the better that managers simply are not able to answer such questions.
Most MSC's give you some flexibility in how you ask a Fair Housing Question. For instance, if I am touring as schoolkids are coming home or if I see balconies with lots of toys, I might comment on how nice the kids seem and ask if I'd be the only on without kids.... Recently I was posing as a single father of a teenage girl and asked if there would be other kids her age in the community..... I've toured mid-morning and noted that there were an awful lot of older residents, so I asked if I would be the youngest person in the community if I were to move it.... At another community, the manager and I bumped into three different residents, each of whom the manager greeted in Spanish. I asked if everybody at the community spoke Spanish.... By naturally working the question into my tour experience, I find it far less awkward.
@iShop123 wrote:
@CashieNess wrote:
Also, on a particular apartment shop, the question had to be, "What type of people live here?" I felt really bad asking that, it made me sound like a not so nice person.
That's a sting question for Equal Housing. They can't mention race or other protected classes. They are supposed to direct you to your local police department, or I have had one send me to City-Data.com. For instance, they can get fined for telling you that it's mostly [insert race here] residents, or single parents, or childless couples or a scad of other characteristics.
Stupid, IMHO, because if you *want* to live in a complex that is majority Asian or majority people over 40 or has few children, you ought to be able to choose that.
Hard work builds character and homework is good for your soul.
Post removed as it is against Forum guidelines to link an MSC with its client(s).