A/HRC/11/36/Add.3 page 20 Housing Act.43 Steering practices have generally contributed to a persistence of residential segregation. Direct discrimination has also been detected in rental and sale of houses as well as in mortgage lending, with people of colour being more likely to receive higher cost or subprime loans than white borrowers with similar income and other characteristics.44 63. Concerns were expressed that the FHEO, which is the key agency responsible for acting on complaints of housing discrimination, only finds reasonable cause for discrimination in a small number of complaints and that the period of investigation is often surpasses the 100-day mark set by Congress.45 It should be noted, however, that a number of cases are resolved through the conciliation and settlement processes which are encouraged under the Fair Housing Act. At the same time, enforcement actions by the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice were also criticized due to the limited number of cases it has initiated. Another problem raised by civil society is the large number of unreported cases of fair housing violations due to lack of knowledge of Fair Housing laws. While the Special Rapporteur was informed by HUD of many awareness-raising initiatives, civil society deemed them insufficient to educate the public.46 64. A particular dimension of the housing problem highlighted by civil society lies in homelessness. The Special Rapporteur visited the Skid Row area in Los Angeles, interacting with a number of homeless persons and civil society support groups. Interlocutors highlighted the disproportionate impact of homelessness among minorities, particular African Americans, as also highlighted by the Human Rights Committee in its 2006 of the United States periodic report.47 This problem is often reinforced by the reduction of funds for the construction of public housing. In addition, relations between law enforcement and homeless persons were also highlighted as an important problem, particularly with regard to the enforcement of minor law enforcement violations which often take a disproportionately high number of African American homeless persons to the criminal justice system. 43 A recent report by the National Fair Housing Alliance described paired tests that showed that in 20 percent of tests, African American or Hispanic testers were denied service or provided limited service by real estate agents. See 2008 Fair Housing Trends Report, p. 28. Available at http://www.nationalfairhousing.org/ An increase in steering from 1989 to 2000 was also detected in the Housing Discrimination Study 2000 conducted by HUD. 44 See Vikas Bajaj and Ford Fessenden, “What’s Behind the Race Gap”, New York Times, 4 November 2007. Quoted in the shadow report Residential Segregation and Housing Discrimination in the United States submitted to CERD by Housing Scholars and Research and Advocacy Organizations, p.18. http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/ngos/usa/ USHRN27.pdf. 45 See U.S. General Accounting Office, Fair Housing: Opportunities to Improve HUD’s Oversight and Management of the Enforcement Process. Available at http://www.gao.gov/ new.items/d04463.pdf. 46 Residential Segregation and Housing Discrimination in the United States. 47 See CCPR/C/USA/CO/3, para. 22.