Those who call for tough enforcement of fair-housing laws have long sought such testers, but bankers - who stand to be embarrassed, or worse - insist they're unreliable.

"Yet the very agencies charged with overcoming housing discrimination, enforcing fair-housing laws and discouraging segregation in housing are doing little or nothing to ameliorate racial patterns," it said.

Ms. Gross said the organization would release a report next month showing that segregation remains epidemic despite fair-housing laws and the growth of the Island's minority populations.

But the same report called the department's enforcement of fair-housing laws "dismal" and said the number of actions had declined, in relative terms, since 1997.

"When you see the size and frequency of the penalties for violating fair-housing laws, that's warning enough," said Edward I. Sumber, the attorney for the Westchester County Board of Realtors.

ADVOCATES of desegregated housing in the suburbs celebrated a legal victory last week when the United States Supreme Court ruled that Huntington, L.I., had violated Federal fair-housing laws through exclusionary zoning.

Relying on Assistants While he took an interest in some issues like strengthening fair-housing laws, for much of his eight years he was a reclusive administrator who, despite his promises, never mastered the department.

The banks have no choice but to change, because the Federal Government is moving ever more aggressively to bolster the enforcement of fair-lending and fair-housing laws.

The department has also teamed up with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which has broad powers to enforce fair-housing laws and which can investigate nonbank mortgage-finance companies.

These include low interest rates, low unemployment, rising incomes, a number of Federal assistance programs, increased competition among mortgage lenders, and better enforcement of fair-housing laws.