A black woman’s house doubled in value after removing items that identified her race and asking her white male friend to pose as the owner.
Carlette Duffy, from Indianapolis, recently filed a housing discrimination complaint with the Fair Housing Centre of Central Indiana (FHCCI).
Duffy is seeking for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to conduct an investigation on why her house’s re-appraisal increased by more than $100,000 after she removed all indicators that she was Black.
Duffy suspected something was wrong after her first two appraisals came to the same price she paid for her home in 2017.
“When I challenged it, it came back that the appraiser said they’re not changing it,” Duffy told CBS 4. “I decided to do exactly what was done in the article.”
“I took down every photo of my family from my house,” she said. “I took every piece of ethnic artwork out, so any African artwork, I took it out. I displayed my degrees, I removed certain books.”
In addition to not disclosing her African race with the appraisal company, she also asked a white male friend to pose as the homeowner.
Shortly after, Duffy’s home was valued at more than double compared to the first two appraisals.
“I get choked up even thinking about it now because I was so excited and so happy, and then I was so angry that I had to go through all of that just to be treated fairly,” Duffy said. “I’m doing this for my daughter and I’m doing this for my granddaughter so that when they come against obstacles they will know that you can stand up, you can say that this is not right.”
Rodman Schley, the president of The Appraisal Institute, issued a statement and encouraged people who experienced similar housing discrimination to report it to authorities.
“We believe that overwhelmingly, there are more good people in this world than bad, including in the appraisal profession – and that today, more than ever, people are committed to listening, learning, and changing,” Schley said. “That said, it is widely accepted that unconscious bias is real, and no profession is immune from that.”