Marin County homeowner alleging racial bias in appraisal speaks out in fair housing conference

Days after gaining a legal victory, a Black Marin City man, whose lawsuit alleging racial bias in home appraisals led to a national discussion, called for change Wednesday.

“It’s humiliating,” Paul Austin told attendees at a virtual conference titled Fair Housing and Race Conscious Policies. He was summing up an experience he and his wife Tenisha Austin endured with having their home devalued amid an overheated housing market.

The Austins have said the issue began with the couple renovating their $550,000 Pacheco Street home situated near Sausalito in 2020. When they attempted to refinance it, their lender required that property be reappraised.

“I was home at the time. When we got the report back, we were very disappointed,” he said.

That appraisal was made by Janette Miller of San Rafael, later named as a defendant in the Austins’ federal lawsuit. Working on behalf of AMC Links of Lehi, Utah, Miller listed the property value at $995,000.

After disputing the initial report, a second one was ordered. The Austins removed their pictures and décor that reflected any resemblance to their culture, along with asking a white family friend, Jan, to show the house.

“She brought a picture of her family and acted like it was her home,” he told the conference call group.

The second appraisal came back as $1.48 million, igniting a federal lawsuit filed in San Francisco last December by the Austins, who are working in conjunction with the Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California as co-plaintiffs.

Plaintiff Attorney Liza Cristol-Deman of Brancart & Brancart in Pescadero explained to the fair housing conference goers that the appraiser was “hyper-focused” when setting the home value on properties in other neighborhoods of the same predominant demographic. Many of these houses had “nothing in common” with the Austins’.

Miller’s attorneys with Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker of San Francisco have refused to comment, including attorney Madonna Herman who declined to say whether her client knew the home was owned by a Black couple.

The defendant’s lawyers filed a request last January for dismissal, claiming it has no merit and legal standing as well as no connection to the Fair Housing Act from which “to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.”

The plaintiffs seek unspecified damages on the basis of economic losses, emotional distress and civil rights violations.

The U.S. Department of Justice has also weighed in on the Marin County case, filing a statement of interest related to the motion to dismiss.

U.S. District Court Judge Maxine Chesney later denied the defendant’s motion April 13. The case is still under review as a legal conference is set in early May to possibly set a schedule.

Cristol-Deman, told the Business Journal the case may take months even years to resolve.

The attorney labeled the appraisal industry as out-of-date and flying “under the radar” in terms of its policies and procedures.

“We need to bring it up to the 21st century,” she said.

Austin agreed that systems need to be dismantled because some “have never been fair to Black and brown communities,” he said at the Wednesday virtual conference. But he added optimism the Biden Administration appears to advance the call for change. “We are very hopeful,” he said.

In March, Austin’s wife, Tenisha, appeared at a White House briefing launching a new program called “PAVE,” which stands for Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity.

The launch marks the first interagency task force involving 13 federal agencies and the White House Domestic Policy Council run by Susan Rice, who is a former National Security Advisor from 2013 to 2017.

Rice called the racial divide between black and white communities as “wider than ever” in contemporary times, further labeling the racial inequity in housing policies as “insidious.”

Tenisha Austin told PAVE adoption attendees the experience that “shocked” she and her husband prompted her to consider forming a new business named Critical Friends, which would help “principals and other business leaders improve equity practices” in communities.

“The impact of devaluing a home in this country is powerful,” she said.

For housing advocates such as the National Fair Housing Alliance, the practice of devaluing homes for people of color represents a prolonged economic issue.

“The nation’s public policies are steeped in structural inequality,” NFHA Senior Vice President of Public Policy Nikitra Bailey told fair housing conference attendees Wednesday.

She cited a 2018 Brookings Institution report that demonstrates homes in Black neighborhoods are “undervalued” by 23%, a statistic amounting to an average $48,000 per residence that translates to an overall loss of $156 billion in equity to homeowners across the United States.

Susan Wood covers law, cannabis, production, tech, energy, transportation, agriculture as well as banking and finance. For 27 years, Susan has worked for a variety of publications including the North County Times, Tahoe Daily Tribune and Lake Tahoe News. Reach her at 530-545-8662 or susan.wood@busjrnl.com.