In Spring 2007 GNOFHAC conducted another "mystery shopper" study, this time investigating the rental housing market in the New Orleans metro area. GNOFHAC sent out black and white applicants of equal income, credit and jobs as rental market testers.  Black testers reported that 58% of the time they were resisted ("stonewalled") in some fashion or another. Unreturned phone calls, filled vacancies, and higher rental quotes were all mentioned by black testers.

The study seems to have some minor problems, but its conclusion that race based rental property discrimination is taking place seems almost certain to be true. The study suggests blatant tactics are not used, but more subtle discrimination is typical. Landlords are apparently willing to take risks in order to rent their properties as they see fit and have developed tactics to keep them out of court.

The study recommendations for more enforcement are not likely to be adopted or to achieve widespread success. Faced with tougher enforcement, landlords will just adopt more subtle strategies. Determining root causes of the discrimination could be more useful. It might be interesting to know if the landlords were reacting to specific economic forces rather than practicing arbitrary racial discrimination. Know the answer might just affect the action plan.