NAACP legal arm sues Realtor alleging racial steering

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The NAACP Legal Defense Fund filed a complaint this morning against a Western New York realty company alleging racial discrimination among prospective homebuyers in Buffalo.

The complaint accuses Charles Glander, real estate broker and founder of Avant Realty, of violating the Fair Housing Act by “steering” — an illegal practice in real estate that involves directing prospective homebuyers toward or away from certain neighborhoods based on factors like race.

“We are very alarmed by that, and we hope that our action — filing this complaint and bringing these allegations to light — will help Black residents of Buffalo access housing in communities of their choice throughout the city,” said Elizabeth Caldwell, assistant counsel for the Legal Defense Fund.

The accusations included in the lawsuit filed in federal court are based on sales tests of several real estate agencies performed by Housing Opportunities Made Equal. Glander’s conduct was alarming, according to HOME attorney Daniel Corbitt, who found the multi-year investigation’s results “very discouraging” but “not surprising.”

“With this case in particular, it was really based on race, right out of the playbook as far as what they shouldn’t be doing,” he said.

Glander’s attorney, Joshua Ramos, called the allegations “laughable” and he said that HOME’s complaints do not accurately portray his client’s personal or professional character.

“The guy is the least racist person I have ever met in my life,” Ramos said. “Charles can care less what color someone is and he works hard, as long as you are qualified to close, he’s going to represent you.”

Founded in 2020, Avant Realty is based in Newfane and has a second office at 550 Seneca St. in Buffalo. The company covers “all of Western New York,” according to its website, with sales in 30 cities, towns and villages that include Niagara Falls, Akron, Clarence and Orchard Park. The realty group has five real estate agents, including Glander, and one loan officer.

According to Corbitt, members of the Legal Defense Fund began looking into real estate discrimination in Western New York in November 2023. That followed the filing of a federal lawsuit alleging racial discrimination against the Clover Group, owned by prominent developer Michael Joseph. 

“[The Legal Defense Fund] had reached out to us [HOME], and then we started having some conversations with them about collaborating on some of these matters, and the real estate testing that we did in particular really interested them,” Corbitt said.

Allegations of steering

The Legal Defense Fund’s complaint alleges that Glander “directed white prospective homebuyers away from predominantly Black neighborhoods, a practice he did not apply for Black homebuyers,” according to a statement from the law firm.

According to Corbitt, Glander told HOME’s white testers to avoid “unsafe” neighborhoods on Buffalo’s predominantly Black East Side and instead consider options in areas like North Buffalo.

“Oftentimes, you would get those kinds of statements like, ‘Oh, I know I shouldn’t be saying this, but I want to make sure that you would be comfortable in this neighborhood.’ And again, it’s based on their race, and also the racial characteristics of the demographics of those neighborhoods where they’re steering folks towards or away from,” he said.

The complaint also states that Glander limited options for HOME’s Black testers, claiming that he only discussed four neighborhoods per meeting with Black homebuyers and 10 neighborhoods with white homebuyers.

Glander’s attorney argued that some of his client’s conversations with homebuyers could have been taken out of context, such as him recommending neighborhoods based on housing availability for family size.

However, Ramos maintained his client’s actions were never racially discriminatory and he questioned the organization’s motives for targeting real estate agents by employing testers.

“When you’re paying people to go do this – to entrap people into statements – and hours and hours of conversations later, you pull out one small tidbit out of context, something just doesn’t seem right.”

Corbitt said HOME attempted to address their concerns with Avant Realty last fall in an effort to avoid litigation before the Legal Defense Fund stepped in. 

“With this particular real estate agency, we tried to reach out beforehand and resolve it informally, without having to file a lawsuit prior to this, and they weren’t interested in doing so,” he said.

According to Ramos, the early talks between his client and HOME consisted of the organization threatening legal action unless Glander paid them.

“They said ‘We have the option of filing a federal complaint. We could file administrative complaints, but if you pay us, we’ll go away,’” Ramos said.

But the attorney claims that representatives from HOME didn’t provide him and Glander with adequate evidence of racial steering. He said they attempted to send audio recordings of Glander allegedly making discriminatory remarks, but the files were not playable.

Corbitt said that HOME did ask to be reimbursed for the time and resources used for the investigation, but that

“It really harms our ability to serve our clients who are so desperate for help finding safe, decent affordable places to live, and that’s really our main focus. Ideally, we wouldn’t have to file these lawsuits, we wouldn’t have to reach out to these housing providers and these real estate professionals, especially like Mr. Glander, who knew what he was doing was wrong,” Corbitt said.

An all too familiar concern

“​​The history of segregation in Buffalo is very stark, and we were very concerned by the level of segregation that persists in Buffalo and has for many decades,” said Caldwell, the Legal Defense Fund attorney. 

“That’s something that really drew our attention to Buffalo, particularly the ways that Black residents in Buffalo have a hard time accessing housing opportunities throughout the city.

An Investigative Post analysis last year of banks and other mortgage lending companies found that Black applicants are twice as likely to be denied a home mortgage as the overall population in Erie and Niagara counties.

The gap between the denial rate for Black applicants and the overall mortgage denial rate in the Erie-Niagara region — 18 percent vs. 9 percent — was the widest found in the top 50 metro areas in 2022.

Since the 1980s, Black homeownership rates in Erie County haven’t surpassed the 35 percent threshold, while white residents have seen higher rates of homeownership in each consecutive decade.

“The real estate industry, historically and to this day, has been, frankly, part of the problem, so they need to do better,” Corbitt said.

Ramos said that he and Glander would be willing to consider a resolution that includes implementing training and education to better enforce fair housing policies within real estate.

“That would be great for any agent to have, whether it’s part of Mr. Glanders office or any other office just to do those classes, because it only helps improve you as an agent and us as a community. So that would always be on the table,” Ramos said.

I'Jaz Ja'ciel