Unofficial filing practices let a single clerk override formal nondiscriminatory housing rules.

Evidence

Perhaps an extreme example is provided by the public-housing applications clerk who identified prospective tenants she considered desirable, placed them in projects before vacancies became generally available, and informally rejected acceptable applications by placing them in a special file in the back of the applications file drawer. She did all this while working for an agency whose formal procedures called for fair and nondiscretionary behav- Wherever workers encounter the public they are in positions to play the gatekeeping functions of determining eligibility, conveying information, and presenting the face ofthe agency to clients as benign, indifferent, or hostile. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 949

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: ‘The Drawer’ — the physical filing system as the hidden infrastructure of discrimination, where removable files become de facto denials.