Title: Will you be my neighbor Housing and neighborhood diversity in the US'
1Will you be my neighbor? Housing and
neighborhood diversity in the US.
- Presentation to
- Program for Advising in Scholarship and Service
(PASS) - The Ohio State University
- Jason Reece, AICP
- Senior Researcher
- Reece.35_at_osu.edu
- The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race
Ethnicity - The Ohio State University
- February 19th 2008
2Discussion Points
- Access to Opportunity Matters
- Race, poverty, place and inequity
- Understanding our cities
- Housing and neighborhoods
- Our Link to Opportunity
- Reflecting on the 40th Anniversary of the Fair
Housing Act
3Opportunity MattersRace, Poverty, Place and
Inequity
4Neighborhoods and Access to Opportunity
- Five decades of research indicate that your
environment has a profound impact on your access
to opportunity and likelihood of success - Impoverished Blacks and Latinos are far more
likely to live in neighborhoods of concentrated
poverty - These high poverty environments create deplorable
living conditions and are a manifestation of
living isolated from opportunity
5The Cumulative Impacts of Spatial, Racial and
Opportunity Segregation
Neighborhood Segregation impacts a number of
life-opportunities
Impacts on Health
School Segregation
Impacts on Educational Achievement
Exposure to crime arrest
Transportation limitations and other inequitable
public services
Job segregation
Neighborhood Segregation
Racial stigma, other psychological impacts
Impacts on community power and individual assets
Adapted from figure by Barbara Reskin at
http//faculty.washington.edu/reskin/
6Housing location determines access to schools.
7jobs
8neighborhood amenities
9How Were These Communities Created?
- Housing policies, discrimination, land use policy
and patterns of regional investment and
disinvestment converge to produce continued
racial segregation in our society - Producing a racial isolation in neighborhoods
that are lacking the essential opportunities to
advance in our society (fueling racial
disparities)
10Policies Enforcing InequityHistorical
Government Role
- If a neighborhood is to retain stability, it is
necessary that properties shall continue to be
occupied by the same social and racial classes.
A change in social or racial occupancy generally
contributes to instability and a decline in
values. -
- Excerpt from the 1947 FHA underwriting manual
11Historical Contemporary Racial Dynamics in
Housing
- Public and private practices supported the
creation and maintenance of segregated
neighborhoods - FHA lending restrictions disallowed integrated
neighborhoods, which restricted equity-building
in suburbs largely to whites - Privately maintained racially restrictive
covenants - Mid-century Urban Renewal replaced poor
neighborhoods with commercial development or
housing for whites poor people of color moved to
high-density, high-rise public housing utilized
eminent domain - Highway building facilitated moves from city to
suburb and movement between suburbs gas/auto
subsidies - New infrastructure prioritized over existing
repair and updates
12The Wailing Wall in Detroit
13The Rise of SuburbiaBut not accessible to
everyone
In the suburb-shaping years (1930-1960), less
than one-percent of all African Americans were
able to obtain a mortgage.
14Urban Renewal in Boston
15Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis
16Cabrini Green in Chicago
17Segregation, Inequity Sprawl
- Sprawl actively works to disconnect marginalized
communities from opportunity - Pushing limited resources away from existing
communities - Segregating people along race and class lines and
segregating people from opportunity - Space is how race plays out in American
society-and the key to solving inequities in
housing, transportation, education, and health
careSprawl is the new face of Jim Crow. -- john
powell
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23Policies Enforcing Inequity Contemporary
Government Role
- The exclusion and segregation produced by sprawl
is not natural or neutral it results from
government policies, such as - Zoning laws prevent affordable housing in many
growth areas - Housing policies concentrate subsidized housing
- Municipalities subsidize the relocation of
businesses out of the city - Transportation and infrastructure spending
favoring highways, metropolitan expansion and
urban sprawl - Court decisions prevent metropolitan school
desegregation - School funding is tied to property taxes
- These factors support racial/social segregation
and isolation from opportunity
24Who Lives in Concentrated Poverty Neighborhoods?
- Over 3.1 million African Americans lived in
Concentrated Poverty Neighborhoods in 2000,
Blacks and Latinos represent nearly 3 out of 4
residents in these neighborhoods - Nearly 1 out of 10 Blacks lived in a concentrated
poverty neighborhood in 1999, compared to 1 out
of 100 Whites - Whites only make 30 of people living in high
poverty neighborhoods, although they represent
55 of the total population living in poverty
25Segregation from Opportunity Neighborhood Poverty
- In all three of Ohios largest metropolitan
areas, African Americans live in neighborhoods
with 2 to 3 times the poverty rate experienced in
White Neighborhoods
26Housing Our Link to Communities of
OpportunityLocation, Location, Location
27Housing Location, Location, Location
- Housing location and the neighborhood you live in
determines (some examples) - The appreciation you can expect to see in your
home value - The quality of schools your children will attend
- Your exposure to crime, violence and public
safety risk - Your access to employment, transit and job
networks - Where you live is more important than what you
live in
28Housing and Education
Produces Dysfunctional Schools
Housing Discrimination
Segregation
50 years after the Brown Decision, Americas
schools have re-segregated into affluent white
districts and poor under-funded African American
and Hispanic districts
29Economic Segregation and Racial Segregation in
Public Schools Southwest Ohio High Poverty
Schools (Red and Yellow) are Concentrated in
African American Neighborhoods (Areas in Gray)
30Segregation by Race and Class in Cincinnati
Schools
31Cycle of School Segregation
32Sprawl and Disinvestment in Urban Communities
- Decades of suburban flight have drained low
income inner city neighborhoods of people,
business and investment - High vacancy rates and poor investment harms the
quality of life for inner city residents and
limits the resources (tax base) for low income
communities
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34Sprawl, Inequity and Economic Opportunity
- Jobs have moved away from the labor pool in many
metropolitan areas, making connecting job-seekers
with jobs a challenge (compounded by poor public
transportation) - In 2000, more than 40 of Cincinnatis jobs have
moved more than 10 miles from downtown - Public investment disproportionately favors
highways over public transportation public
transportation can not access most suburban job
sites - Nearly 60 of Cincinnatis black population is
physically segregated from jobs - The eighth highest rate in the nation among the
largest 100 metropolitan areas
Source Brookings Institute
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36Reflecting on the 40th Anniversary of the Fair
Housing ActHave we Achieved Fair Housing?
37The Significance of the Fair Housing Act
- Signed into law by President Johnson on April
11th 1968 - Direct result of the tremendous efforts of Dr.
Martin Luther King in opening up northern
segregated communities - Bill passage tied directly to Dr. Kings
assassination on April 4th
38The Significance of the Fair Housing Act
- Places significant limitations on housing
discrimination in the private market - Places burden on the government to affirmatively
further fair housing - A critical provision in cases challenging the
actions of HUD public housing authorities - Despite its significance there are still
limitations to using the act to open up White
segregated communities
39Fair Housing Integration
40Racial Disparity in Households Impacted by
Housing Problems Hamilton County 2000
Source US Dept. of Housing Urban Development
41Barriers to Fair HousingThe Web of Housing
Challenges
Housing Challenges
42Impacts on Housing Opportunity
- Sprawl, subsidized housing policy and
exclusionary zoning reduce access to the housing
market for low income residents (especially
people of color) - Suburban zoning regulations artificially drive up
the cost of housing and do not allow enough
rental housing - New housing is unaffordable to low income
residents and most people of color - Subsidized housing policy is still concentrating
most public subsidized affordable housing - Disinvestment in the inner city reduces the asset
value (wealth) of homeowners in inner city
neighborhoods
43Growing Affordability Problems (in Many Markets)
- The nation has a growing affordability problem
- Appreciation in coastal markets and lagging
incomes in other markets are contributing to this
trend - Even for markets like Columbus
- Columbus is now the 3rd least affordable housing
market in the Midwest
44Exclusionary Land Use Policy
45Racial Steering and Discrimination
- Recent studies by researchers and the federal
government (HUD) found that racial steering,
discrimination and exclusion are still prevalent
in the housing market - Creating barriers to housing access outside of
cost impediment - Orfield and Luce (2005) Iceland, Sharpe and
Steinmetz (2005) Dawkins (2004) Pendall (2000)
HUD HDS (2000) Galster (1998) Schill and Wachter
(1995) Massey, Gross and Shibuya (1994) HUD HDS
(1989)
46Racial Steering in Detroit
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48New Threats The Sub-Prime and Foreclosure
Challenge
- The result of the sub-prime foreclosure crisis
in the US may significantly erode fair housing
gains and further isolate inner city
neighborhoods - 2 million foreclosures expected in the next two
years - Nationwide, nearly 55 of all high cost loans
went to African American borrowers - Experts estimate that the loss in home equity to
African American and Latino homeowners will
exceed a quarter of trillion dollars - Why, direct asset loss (foreclosure) and loss in
home value due to the geographic concentration of
foreclosures in minority neighborhoods
Source United for a Fair Economy
49Predatory Lending and Race Example (Cleveland)
Maps Produced and adapted from Charles Bromley,
SAGES Presidential Fellow, Case Western University
50Predatory Lending, Foreclosure and Race Example
(Cleveland)
51Discussion Questions
- Have you experienced this phenomena in your life?
- Where did you grow up, what was the community
like, have you seen these communities in the
Columbus area? - What are the solutions to this challenge?
- How do we help low opportunity segregated
communities? - How do we provide access to affluent exclusionary
communities?
52Questions or Comments? For More Information
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