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Housing and neighborhoods Many residents in the three counties have personal relationships with people of other races and express a desire to have neighbors of all races. Still, housing discrimination happens when people seek a place to live as welI as once they move in. ■ In oUr survey, about a quarter say that fihey have family memhers of another race, and 72 percent indicate that they have at least one close friend who is of another race. ■ 64 percent interact regularly with at least one neighbor of a different race. ■ Rates of horne ownership in 2000 were: 76 percent for Whites; 32 percent for Blacks/ African Americans; 42 percent for American Indians; 51 percent for Asians; and 46 percent for Hispanics/Latinos. ■ In our survey, 77 percent of residents feel that most White people prefer to live in areas where most of their neighbors are White; however, 59 percent say that they do not havc a preference about the race of their neighbors, and 26 percent prefer neighbors of vanous races. ■ In our survey, 4 percent of Blacic/African-Aznericans, 3 percent of Hmong, 2 percent of American Indians, and S percent of Latinos report they have been refused housing in the past two years, because of their race. No Whites say they have had this experience. ■ In our community conversations, participants described sorne of the ways in which housing discrimination occurs, including landlords saying apartments are no longer available once they see the race of the individual and perceived discrimination by realtors and nnortgage companies. Southeast Asians in particular complained about housing inspections, which caused baz�riers to hom�e ownership or made the process much tnoze labor-intensive for the buyers. ■ The community conversations also noted that renters and homeowners of coior face challenges from neighbors once they are living in their new neighborhoods, inciuding alienation, isoLaCion, and blatant racist behavior from neighbors such as being called racial names and being told to "go back home." They also described repeated incidents of mistreatment of new residents of color by neighborhood police officers. Economics and employrraent Income disparities by race persist, at�d some grew in the past 1 Q years. Racism may contribute to this gap through, among other factors, hiring discrimination; mistreat►nent, exploitation, and alienation on the job; and the inaccessibilaty or inadequacy of human rights interventioa_ An assessment of racism in 3 January l U04 Dakota, Ramsey, and Washington counties