A sting operation found that real estate professionals often declined to rent Chicago-area properties to investigators posing as low-income families, a watchdog group announced Monday.
The Housing Rights Initiative filed a slew of complaints with the Illinois Department of Human Rights, claiming that real estate agents, brokerage firms and landlords discriminated against prospective renters who sought to use vouchers provided through the federal rental assistance program known as Section 8.
A group of investigators went undercover last year as prospective tenants, contacting hundreds of brokers and landlords by text message to determine whether they were complying with the Illinois Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination against people with housing vouchers.
The group found that voucher holders were explicitly discriminated against about 36% of the time, according to a statement issued by the Housing Rights Initiative. A range of real estate heavyweights were among the firms that allegedly broke the law…