Two Long Island Democrats proposed a new bill that targets housing discrimination by allowing New York State to pull the licenses of real estate agents.
A Newsday special investigation showed evidence that potential homebuyers were steered towards neighborhoods based on race.
State Senator James Gaughran and Assemblywoman Kimberly Jean-Pierre will sponsor a bill that would expand the state’s authority to revoke a real estate agent’s license.
Jean-Pierre is a woman of color.
“For me, if I tell my daughter, you could be whoever you want to be, but then you can’t live wherever you want to live is just an oxymoron, and it needs to change. So this legislation will, you know, pull out the bad actors out of the real estate industry.”
The state already has the power to suspend a broker’s license for fraudulent practices. The bill would also include violations of the civil rights law.
