Fair-housing laws outlawed race discrimination, but that doesn’t mean the practice has ended. Landlords still manage to employ discrimination in housing through various loopholes. For example, a landlord might not show a Hispanic tenant a two-bedroom apartment, but he will show it to the white applicant. White tenants might be offered preferential rents or have fees waived while other minorities are not given these privileges. Not only to people of color and different race face discrimination, but this is also a severe issue for disabled people as well.

As a result, minorities and the disabled are forced to settle in poor neighborhoods and are unable to receive the same comforts, security, and opportunities. Thus, housing discrimination contributes to the prevalent issue of poverty in New York City. This is an example of the interconnectedness of various problems faced by New York City residents.

However, as I was reading this week’s passage, I couldn’t help but think that although housing discrimination is wrong and unfair, from the land lord point of view, shouldn’t it be up to him or her to decide who they want to live in their private property. Their conceptions may be misdirected but after all it belongs to them. Here too, the problem of private property rights and government intervention is debated. How far can the government go without it being considered a breach on private property rights, one of the rights stated in our bill of rights.