NEW YORK STATE -- On Sunday Governor Cuomo announced a way that the state can fight discrimination within the housing market.
Under the Federal Fair Housing Act and New York's human rights law, it is illegal for landlords and sellers to discriminate against homeowners or renters.
The Fair Housing Enforcement Program is a new initiative that will work to protect the rights of homebuyers and renters. The program will send trained fair housing employee testers, who have diverse backgrounds to homes for rent or sale and will test for discriminatory practices.
When the testers present information such as income and career profile to a real estate agent and owners, they will report how they were treated.
"By definition you have to have a housing market that allows people to live, wherever they want to live, and that's what this market is supposed to be all about," said Cuomo.
So far, 123 cases of housing discrimination are being investigated across the state.