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The California Association of Realtors has issued a formal apology for racist past policies supported by white supremacist groups that continue to impact access to housing today.
C.A.R. is the nation’s second-largest Realtor association with more than 217,000 members. The trade group, under its original, pre-1975 name, the California Real Estate Association, “once played a leading role in segregation and exclusionary practices in housing,” C.A.R. acknowledged in a press release Friday.
“For decades, CREA promoted policies that encouraged discrimination and the idea that neighborhood integration would negatively impact property values.”
The Los Angeles-based trade group noted that it had endorsed racial zoning, redlining and racially restrictive covenants — all policies designed to enforce segregation and restrict where people of color could live and build wealth through homeownership. The association also denied membership to women and people of color.
Otto Catrina
“The Association was wrong,” said C.A.R. President Otto Catrina in a statement.
“We not only apologize for those actions, we strongly condemn them, and we will continue working to address the legacy of these discriminatory policies and practices.”
To its knowledge, C.A.R. is the first state Realtor association to issue such an apology. Minneapolis Area Realtors, a local Realtor association in Minnesota, apologized last week and St. Louis Realtors, a local association in Missouri, apologized a month ago. Each identified specific remedial policy changes they were making in tandem with their apologies. The National Association of Realtors, the Atlanta Realtors Association and the Chicago Association of…