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When Paul Austin and Tenisha Tate-Austin sued their real estate appraiser, her company, and the company that hired her for allegedly under-valuing their home based on their race, they were after more than just financial restitution.
The African American couple, who own a home in Marin City, Calif., wanted the individuals and the companies involved in shortchanging them to change how they would appraise Black and Latino-owned properties moving forward.
They think they’re on their way to doing that. Late last month the pair reached a settlement agreement with Janette Miller in the federal housing discrimination lawsuit that included an undisclosed amount of money. But more important, their lawyer told NPR, it mandates that the licensed real estate appraiser “agrees not to discriminate in the future.”
Miller, who the Austins have described as an older white woman, must also attend a training session on the history of segregation and real estate-related discrimination in Marin County, provided by Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California, which participated in the suit as a co-plaintiff.
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