Housing discrimination in the United States
Housing discrimination became more pronounced after the abolition of slavery in 1865, typically as part of Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation.
The federal government didn't begin to take action against these laws until 1917, when the Supreme Court struck down ordinances prohibiting African-Americans from occupying or owning buildings in majority-white neighborhoods in Buchanan v. Warley.
Despite these efforts, studies have shown that housing discrimination still exists and that the resulting segregation has led to wealth, educational, and health disparities.
Fifteen state courts obeyed ordinances that enforced the denial of housing to African American and other minority groups in white-zoned areas.
Following this decision, however, nineteen states began legally supporting "covenants," or agreements, between property owners to not rent or sell any homes to racial or ethnic minorities.
Levittown was a neighborhood built to provide affordable housing for returning veterans from World War II, but the developer refused to allow people of color to live there.
[11] The act explicitly prohibits housing discrimination practices common at the time, including filtering information about a home's availability, racial steering, blockbusting, and redlining.
It outlawed: When the Fair Housing Act was first enacted, it prohibited discrimination only on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
FHEO funds and has working agreements with many state and local governmental agencies where "substantially equivalent" fair housing laws are in place.
[21] The amendment established a system of administrative law judges to hear cases brought to them by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and to levy fines.
[23] Moreover, they found that local nonprofits and administrators responsible for enforcing fair housing laws had a tendency to downplay discrimination based on family status and race when designing implementation strategies.
[26] The United States Census has shown that ethnic and racial minorities living in concentrated, high-poverty areas had actually increased following the passage of the Fair Housing Act from 1970 to 1990.
[28] While this does not necessarily point to evidence of housing discrimination, it does mirror the phenomenon of white flight—the mass exodus during the 1970s and '80s of European-Americans from cities to the suburbs that left only one-fourth of the Anglo population still living in metropolitan areas.
[33] Disparate impact remains controversial among industry and business professionals because some feel that their freedom in implementing policies and rules is now limited.
"[35] Other housing phenomena that Yinger argues encourage segregation are those of sorting and bidding, in which bidders perceived to be higher-class win out on cheaper per-square-foot, larger homes farther away from inner cities.
This study reported that although adverse treatment of racial and ethnic minorities has decreased over time, roughly 25 percent of white applicants were still favored above those who were African-American or Hispanic.
This was ruled to not fall under the Section 230 safe harbor, which protects interactive computer services from liability for the actions of their users, because Roommates.com was specifically responsible for having provided specific means to engage in conduct illegal under the Fair Housing Act; however, the site was not deemed responsible for information provided in a field that allowed users to type in additional comments.
[41] The Roommates.com decision was overturned in 2012, however, with the court ruling that due to the intimacy of this relationship, it would be a violation of their "privacy, autonomy and security" if tenants were unable to seek a roommate that was compatible with their own lifestyle.
However, it was found that advertisers could still discriminate based on interests implicating protected classes (such as Spanish-language television networks), and redlining ZIP code ranges.
[45][46] After signing a legally binding agreement with the State of Washington,[47] Facebook announced that it would remove at least 5,000 categories from its exclusion system to prevent "misuse" including those relating to races and religions.
In all states, same-sex couples are frequently unable to apply to public housing as a family unit, thus decreasing their chances at being accepted into the program.
[60] A 2011 article by HUD asserts that one out of five times, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders receive less favorable treatment than others when they seek housing.
[1] According to a study in the Journal of Economics, homeownership rates for Asian American and Hispanic minorities are negatively impacted by an immigrant status.
[1] Housing discrimination can also impact minority preferences over time, as individuals or families experiencing harassment and intimidation at their home on a daily basis may transition to more accepting neighborhoods.
[70] These statistics do not necessarily point to evidence of housing discrimination, but rather to segregation based on historical reasons which have made ethnic and racial minorities more economically deprived, and thus prone to living in more poverty-stricken inner city areas.
Housing discrimination has contributed to environmental racism, which refers to how communities of color suffer from disproportionate exposure to toxins and other health risks.
Lead paint left over from past years and animal pests, such as rats, can be found in older housing, resulting in serious health consequences.
Other scholars have argued that African American homeowners and renters were exploited for profit as they often paid higher prices for their houses and apartments than those in surrounding white neighborhoods.
Housing discrimination that keeps families from affordable loans and nicer areas with increasing property values keep victims from accumulating wealth.
Partnership between government, private sectors, and community-based organizations to manipulate public policy for the promotion of social equity, as well as, economic growth and environmental sustainability are crucial for justice.
