Table 2:

Case study examples from mystery shopping conducted in New Orleans and Baton Rouge to document instances of housing discrimination among YBMSM, 2015–2016

Types of housing discrimination	Case study examples
Sexual Orientation-based discrimination	New Orleans
	The gay African American tester and the gay white tester both left voicemails for housing provider inquiring about the unit during which each tester mentioned his boyfriend. Neither tester received a call back. The African American and white heterosexual testers also left voicemails for the housing provider, and both received a call back within 24 hours.
	During initial phone calls, the agent offered both heterosexual testers the opportunity to view the vacant 2BR as an example of what the 1BR would look like (which would be available the following month). The agent did not offer this to the gay African American tester & was quite discouraging with her comments during the initial phone call: “I don’t have either one to show right now.” The gay African American tester was told that he would have to put down a deposit and application before he could be put on a waiting list.
	Baton Rouge
	The gay African American tester was told “We do individual leasing, so in order for you two to live together, you would have to get a 2 BR and sign a lease for the 2BR, since it’s individual leasing, you have to lease out per bedroom, not by apartment.” Neither the White heterosexual tester who mentioned his girlfriend nor the African American heterosexual tester, who said: “When can we come in to view it?” were told about “individual” leasing.
Possible sexual-orientation discrimination	Baton Rouge
	The gay African American tester was told that there was a $40 application fee. Both the white heterosexual tester and the African American heterosexual tester were told that there was a special and that the fee was being waived.
Race-based discrimination	New Orleans
	The African American heterosexual tester set up a site appointment with the agent. The tester could no longer make the appointment so he called to reschedule and the agent replied that he would call him back. The agent never called the African American heterosexual tester back. The agent told a second African American heterosexual tester via phone that the unit was already rented on Dec. 9th. The white heterosexual tester confirmed on Dec. 10th that the unit was still available. The gay African American tester made it to site and was encouraged to apply. However, after the gay African American tester texted the agent his email address, the agent claimed that the email address did not work. Ultimately the gay African American tester never received an application. The agent, who was a white gay man, emailed the white heterosexual tester an application and said over the phone after the site appointment, “We’d like to rent the apartment to you.”
	The agent expressed to both African American testers that she wants a tenant who she will feel comfortable around since she lives alone in the same building as the unit for rent. She did not mention this to the white tester. The agent told the African American heterosexual tester that there was a background check but did not mention one to the white tester.
Possible race-based discrimination	New Orleans
	The agent pointed out an apartment with a confederate flag that would be available to the gay African American tester. The gay African American tester was then shown a dirty apartment which was not shown to the white tester. The agent made an encouraging comment to the white tester: “You’re the kind of people we want.”
	The agent made comments only to African American testers about how the owner was very particular about his tenants: “He’s very, very particular about who comes in here. He does credit check, job verification, and landlord history.” The agent was also late to both African American testers’ appointments, and for one of the appointments, did not bring keys to the unit.
	The White tester received an additional follow up phone call (13 days after the site appointment) from the agent asking if he was still interested in the apartment. Encouraging comments were also made to the white tester, including: “Glad you came by, you made my night,” “In conclusion, we’d like you to live here,” and “I’ll get you everything you need, you tell me what you wanna do.”
	Baton Rouge
	The White tester was told that the deposit would be waived, the application fee would be $99, and the first months’ rent would be free. Neither African American tester was told that the first month would be free; one was told that the deposit would be between $150 and a month’s rent depending on credit.
	The white heterosexual tester was offered a $300 Visa gift card to move in, while the gay and heterosexual African American testers were not offered any incentives.