While it’s commendable that East Lansing is asking questions about whether there’s a problem with discrimination when buying or renting property in the city, the way city officials are going about it serves only to keep up the appearance of action, instead of getting to the root of any problem.

East Lansing hired an outside firm to look into fair-housing issues within the city. The group, the Fair Housing Center of Greater Grand Rapids, sent out surveys earlier this month to landlords, student-group leaders and city officials.

East Lansing bans discrimination in housing based on religion, race, color, national origin, age, height, weight, handicap, sex, marital status, student status, use of adaptive devices or aids, sexual orientation and gender identity.

But the survey of the selected groups might fail to give East Lansing an accurate picture of its housing system.

First, it is the wrong time of year to conduct such a survey. During the summer, the city lacks a significant number of people, students who spend time away from MSU. Any figures gathered during this time could easily be altered as soon as the school year starts.

It is understandable officials seem to want to get a head start on the housing study. The sooner results are in, the sooner they can be put to use. But the data gathered will be of no use if it does not convey the concerns of a broader spectrum of the city’s population.

And it’s important that the city survey more than student leaders in its study. While student leaders often are in tune with the issues students are dealing with, a more appropriate focus group would be those who might have dealt with discrimination.

Survey conductors should ideally wait until the fall when students return before distributing their inquiry. If one of the groups most affected by the housing system is absent from the study, there is no way the survey can hope to guide city leaders in the right direction.

It doesn’t appear the city set out to exclude students from the survey, or that city leaders are trying to avoid any problems in city housing, but the timing of this survey is misguided.

City officials need to rethink their strategy for the inquiry and do things right from the start. Unless they do, they may never know if housing discrimination is quietly occurring in this community - and the real problems will never be solved.