Housing segregation in the United States
[29] Conley remarks that differences in rates of home ownership and housing value accrual may lead to lower net worth in the parental generation, which disadvantages the next.
African-Americans, Asians, and Hispanics gain lower home equity returns in comparison to White Americans with increases in income and education.
[37] Results from the last few censuses suggest that more inner-ring suburbs around cities also are becoming home to racial minorities as their populations grow and put pressure on the small neighborhoods that they are confined to.
During this time, many blacks migrated from the Jim Crow South to look for new opportunities and work in Detroit, but were unfortunately met with deep-rooted racist ideologies and overall inequality even in this northern city.
The institutional barriers in place within housing during the postwar period further marginalized African-Americans in Detroit and strengthened pre-existing ideas of racism and white supremacy.
Because many white Detroiters viewed blacks as outsiders that ultimately would devalue their investments in housing and drastically alter their current lifestyles, they were reluctant to allow them to move into their neighborhoods.
These decrypt houses were very poorly maintained and thus had many maintenance issues including problems with running water, fires, and rat infestations – making them unsuitable places to live.
Their neighborhoods were typically clean and had high housing values, a major source of pride and economic and social prosperity for white residents.
The political climate of the postwar period and the residential segregation that blacks faced has played a large role in Detroit's contemporary urban crisis.
Over time, middle-class white residents moved out of public housing, either taking advantage of federally subsidized mortgages in the suburbs, or being actively evicted due to lower income thresholds.
[45] Vacancies were filled with lower-income residents, predominantly minorities excluded from other government programs, who faced ongoing racial discrimination and constituted the majority of the poor population at the time.
[46] This law allowed millions of U.S. soldiers to purchase their first homes with inexpensive mortgages, which meant the huge growth of suburbs and the birth of the ideal of a suburban lifestyle.
The relegation of African Americans to the neighborhoods that were receiving no support due to redlining practices was a self-fulfilling prophecy that created the high crime slums that the city was afraid of.
After this act was passed, outright refusal to sell property to African Americans became rare, given that that behavior could lead to prosecution under the Fair Housing Law.
Audits of the housing market in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, and many other major metropolitan areas have shown discrimination toward African Americans continuing into the 80s, long after the anti-discrimination laws were passed.
Currently 55% of Asians live in the suburban area, but their levels of isolation from their White counterparts have increased over time despite residential mobility.
Socioeconomic status can also contribute to residential segregation, and Chinatowns in the United States continue to represent a large concentration of Asian poverty.
This is when neighborhood decline is analyzed by emphasizing the profit taking of realtors, bankers, and speculators which systematically reduces the worth or value of housing.
In Albina, this process was shown through intensive white flight from the neighborhood, and large redevelopment projects that destroyed the heart of the African American community for the remodeling of a veteran's hospital.
The relocation of so many African Americans from southern Albina because of the hospital project caused more white flight on the northern side of Albina, creating more opportunities for landlords use the tactic of blockbusting, or using the fear of racial turnover and property value decline to convince homeowners to sell at below-market prices, allowing the landlords to then inflate the cost of the property and extort the new African American home buyers.
All of these subtle discriminatory practices leave the metropolitan African American population with few options, forcing them to remain in disinvested neighborhoods with rising crime, gang activity, and dilapidated housing.
This occurs when real estate brokers steer their clients to specific geographic locations of available housing based on race.
[50] Many argue that residential segregation occurs because minority groups, particularly immigrants, do not have the wealth or income to purchase homes in more affluent and predominantly white neighborhoods.
[7][9] The spatial assimilation theory states that immigrants are more likely to experience residential segregation because of a variety of factors such as social networks, family, income, and cultural preference.
[11] Many of these urban, low-income neighborhoods experience unequal accessibility to services compared to their suburban counterparts, which often results in an unhealthy food environment.
One of the prevailing theories states that food deserts resulted from the development of larger supermarkets in affluent areas and the closure of small, independent groceries stores that could not compete economically.
The most recent tragedy was the fire event in the Bronx, New York City at the Twin Parks affordable housing building that killed approximately 19 people, all of whom were immigrant families from Gambia and other West African countries.
For example, public schools in suburban areas are usually more equipped with resources, have a higher percentage quality teachers, and produce a larger amount of successful students.
This further perpetuates poverty because low-income residents experience higher rent burden which forces them to accept low quality housing.
Diverse neighborhoods containing various racial and ethnic groups experience many barriers to community collectivism, such as culture, economic background, and fundamental values.
