Fortune, July 21, 2020: How zoning laws exclude Black families from areas of economic opportunity
Before the Fair Housing Act of 1968, federal subsidies, tax incentives, and racialized zoning encouraged investment in Whites-only suburbs. Local laws systematized residential segregation through redlining and racial covenants and eliminated mixed-race public housing. For much of the early 20th century, Black people were pushed into neighborhoods that often lacked even the most basic amenities, such as sewer lines or paved streets. These policies, described in Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law, were fostered by federal, state, and local governments. We can still see their crushing legacy in the underserved communities prevalent in cities across the country, more than 50 years after the Fair Housing Act became law.
Plainly stated: The lack of affordable housing in neighborhoods of opportunity—which, because of our past racist housing policies, are still mostly White—plays a significant role in our country’s ongoing systemic racial inequalities. As an obstacle to economic advancement, the lack of affordable housing, and the health and economic challenges that come with it, falls disproportionately on people of color.
