Chinese Real Estate Association of America Guarantees Fair Housing
Over 30 years, group has championed minority homebuyers and sellers
February 28, 2008 - In 1951, no Chinese person was allowed to purchase a home in the Sunset District of San Francisco or in all of Daly City. There was also a time when Chinese could not purchase property in San Francisco neighborhoods like St. Francis Woods, Pacific Heights and Sea Cliff. The Chinese Real Estate Association of America was created in 1978 to ensure that never happened again.
Older restrictive covenants were common in deeds during that time, and prohibited the sale or occupancy of properties to non-Caucasians, said the association’s current president John M. Lee. But the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 made it possible for minorities to own property. “That was the key point in time, because it created the teeth of being able to sue if a person was discriminated against,” said former association president John Yen Wong, who was also founding chairman of Asian Real Estate Association of America and former president of the San Francisco Association of Realtors.
Even after the law was enacted, lingering disseminative discrimination was still prevalent. In the late 1970s, real estate agents Charlie Lum, Edward Poon, Chee Yee, Johnny Szeto, Sophie Lau, Herbert Wong and John Y. Wong formed CREAA to address the injustices that Asian Americans faced in purchasing and selling real estate.
CREAA has helped facilitate new ideas and practices among Chinese buyers and sellers, and has influenced legislation policies. The group educates the public by explaining difficult concepts in acquiring and selling property, and translates materials into Chinese (it has also translated materials for the California Association of Realtors).
CREAA members include attorneys, accountants, title insurance personnel, investors, bankers, appraisers, mortgage brokers, insurance agents and other real estate professionals. It is open to people of all ethnicities residing as far as Atlanta and China. In the past, they have had Caucasians, African Americans and Latinos sit on their board of directors.
Over the years, CREAA has advocated for property issues affecting extended families. In 1995, an owner move-in restriction limited San Francisco owner-occupancy to only one unit for apartment buildings. If an Asian family wanted their senior-aged parent and sister living in the apartment next to them, it was prohibited. But CREAA helped pass legislation allowing owners’ families to live in multiple units in the same tenant-occupied building. They also supported a renter relocation fee that owners must now pay to evicted tenants, estimated at $3,000 or more per person.
In the 1990s, the Residential Conservation Ordinance proposed a height limit on San Francisco homes. But, to accommodate Asian families with extended family members living in the same household, CREAA worked with The San Francisco Neighbor Association to prevent this change in the planning code. Years ago, CREAA also played a major role in beating back a proposed property transfer tax increase and Proposition U, a rent control initiative.
“Though CREAA started as an association where Chinese realtors could gather, share information and network, it has evolved into a much larger organization that the founders can be proud of,” Lee said.
Some seminars offered last year included a discussion by the California Association of Realtors’ chief economist, strategies to invest in real estate in China and the rent control policy. The group also held a public buyers fair, which provided information on purchasing and selling property in San Francisco in Chinese. The organization is in the planning stages of developing a scholarship fund, which possibly would be instated next year.
Since 2001, CREAA has been a founding partner and sponsor of the HOPE (Home Ownership Participation for Everyone) Awards, along with a national Hispanic organization and other national real estate associations. Each of the six award recipients receives $10,000 for developing a program that shows measurable results in increasing first-time minority home ownership in the United States.
Wong called the biennial awards monumental: “This is the first time you have a number of real estate professionals from different ethnic backgrounds, not solely Asian, join together to give awards.” Distinguished judges on the panel include Henry Cisneros, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development; Congressman William Lacy Clay Jr.; and San Francisco Superior Court Judge Lillian Sing.
“The people who make up the organization are the most unique part,” Lee said. “Though we are called the Chinese Real Estate Association of America, our members are not all Chinese, and we strive to reach out to everyone who has an interest in knowing about Chinese and Asians.”
Chinese Real Estate Association Of America Guarantees Fair Housing for All
By Grace Tzeng | AsianWeek