Separate and Unequal: The Housing Act of 1968 and the Section 235 Program

In recent years scholars have identified racial disparities in wealth and home ownership as crucial factors underlying patterns of racial inequality and residential segregation in American metropolitan housing markets. While numerous federal housing policies have been identified as responsible for reinforcing residential segregation and racial inequalities in home ownership, little research has focused on the segregative effects of the Section 235 program. As one component of the 1968 Housing Act, Section 235 was designed to shift the focus of federal housing policy away from dispensing aid to local housing authorities for building public housing to providing direct supply-side subsidies to the private sector to stimulate home ownership for nonwhites and the poor. Archival and census data, government reports and housing analyses, and oral histories and interviews are used to examine the segregative effects of the Section 235 program in Kansas City, Missouri from 1969 through the early 1970s. Findings indicate that while the housing subsidy program allowed a vast majority of participating white families to purchase new housing in suburban areas, most participating African American families purchased existing homes located in racially transitional neighborhoods in the inner city. These findings corroborate recent research showing how the market-centered focus of federal housing policy has impaired the ability of African Americans to accumulate wealth through home ownership and reinforced racially segregative housing patterns.     

Neighborhood Diversity, Metropolitan Constraints, and Household Migration

Focusing on micro-level processes of residential segregation, this analysis combines data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics with contextual information from three censuses and several other sources to examine patterns of residential mobility between neighborhoods populated by different combinations of racial and ethnic groups. We find that despite the emergence of multiethnic neighborhoods, stratified mobility dynamics continue to dominate, with relatively few black or white households moving into neighborhoods that could be considered multiethnic. However, we also find that the tendency for white and black households to move between neighborhoods dominated by their own group varies significantly across metropolitan areas. Black and white households' mobility into more integrated neighborhoods is shaped substantially by demographic, economic, political, and spatial features of the broader metropolitan area. Metropolitan-area racial composition, the stock of new housing, residential separation of black and white households, poverty rates, and functional specialization emerge as particularly important predictors. These macro-level effects reflect opportunities for intergroup residential contact as well as structural forces that maintain residential segregation.     

Racial residential segregation and the concentration of low- and high-income households in the 45 largest U.S. metropolitan areas

"The objectives of this paper are to determine the relationship between racial residential segregation and (1) the spatial concentration of low- and high-income households, and (2) the socioeconomic characteristics of racial minority households. The three largest racial minority groups are compared (blacks, Hispanics, and Asians) in the largest 45 metropolitan areas in the United States. Data were obtained from the U.S. bureau of the Census' Population and Housing Summary Tape files. The results revealed that residential segregation of blacks was distinctly different from Asians and Hispanics. Moreover, for Asians and Hispanics, their socioeconomic characteristics matter in their level of residential segregation. For black households, however, their socioeconomic characteristics matter little."     

The Allocation of Black Workers into the Public Sector

Abstract

This study examines the effects of individual and structural factors on the odds that a black worker will be employed in the public sector (federal or state-local government) rather than the private sector. The independent variables include human capital, gender, citizenship, and the structural features of the labor markets (metropolitan areas) in which these workers reside (percent black, residential segregation, geographic region). The study focuses on percent black and residential segregation, two variables which significantly influence discrimination, group power and the employment opportunities of black workers. Logistic regression shows that, controlling for other factors, the odds of black employment in the public sector are highest in metropolitan areas that have large black populations and relatively low levels of residential segregation. These findings indicate that the allocation of black workers into the public sector results from processes of both discrimination and group power. The implications of the findings for the future prospects of black Americans to advance economically through public sector employment are discussed.     

Housing for Families but Not for People: Federal Policy and Normative Family Ideals in Midcentury California

Abstract

Scholars have documented the harmful effects of urban redevelopment in the middle of the twentieth century with a particular focus on “redlining” to achieve racial segregation. This article considers another way that the state influenced social geography. In the middle of the twentieth century, some city planners argued for housing for single people and childless couples, but federal guidelines and funding specified that new housing be for nuclear, heterosexual families with children. Two historical cases demonstrate how planners attempted to create housing for alternative households but were unsuccessful. These two cases show that in addition to the documented effects of shaping the economic and racial landscapes of cities, federal housing policy sent strong signals to people about acceptable family formations by limiting the type and quantity of housing stock available. By examining how planners attempted to move forward with housing for all types of households, this article shows that federal family-oriented policies were not uncontested even if they were usually implemented. These cases highlight the complicated relationship among federal policies, normative culture, and the built environment. This article proposes that we should further investigate the ways in which the built environment has served as a mediator between the state, as exemplified by housing policies, and culture—normative ideals about the family—in a recursive sense; while federal policies both reflected and projected dominant cultural ideology concerning the primacy and importance of nuclear families, urban redevelopment projects presented this relationship in built form when redevelopment took the form of housing for families but not for single people or childless couples.     

Racial Segregation,the Concentration of Disadvantage,and Black and White Homicide Victimization

Discriminatory housing market practices have created and reinforced patterns of racial residential segregation throughout the United States. Such segregation has racist consequences too. Residential segregation increases the concentration of disadvantage for blacks but not whites, creating African-American residential environments that heighten social problems including violence within the black population. At the same time, segregation protects white residential environments from these dire consequences. This hypothesized racially inequitable process is tested for one important type of violence—homicide. We examine race-specific models of lethal violence that distinguish residential segregation from the concentration of disadvantage within racial groups. Data are from the Censuses of Population and Federal Bureau of Investigation's homicide incidence files for U.S. large central cities for 1980 and 1990. Our perspective finds support in the empirical analyses. Segregation has an important effect on black but not white killings, with the impact of segregation on African-American homicides explained by concentrated disadvantage.     

Race,Mortgage Lending and Loan Rejections in a U.S. City

Abstract

The negative effect of neighborhood racial composition on mortgage lending has been documented in recent years in several cities, even after controlling for income, condition of housing and related neighborhood and housing characteristics. Lending industry officials maintain that the racial distribution of mortgage lending is the unintended consequence of profit-based lending activities. In contrast, community activists and civil rights groups claim that racial discrimination is the motivating force underlying mortgage lending practices. Data from the 1991 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) for the Kansas City metropolitan area are used to measure trends in mortgage lending and loan rejection ratios by local lenders. This study finds that Kansas City lenders reject minority applicants at higher rates than whites and reject high-income minorities as often as low-income whites. More importantly, results show that high-income African Americans are rejected at a higher rate than low-income whites, indicating that race of loan applicants plays a crucial role in the decision to approve a mortgage loan, even after controlling for income and other factors. Findings from Kansas City and other cities indicate that the low percentage of minority loan applications from some lenders suggests not only meager marketing, but possible pre-screening of minority applicants where they are discouraged from completing an application form.     

Racial and Ethnic Residential Patterns in Canada

The aim of this study is to understand how city factors explain racial and ethnic residential patterns in contemporary multiethnic cities. We examined residential patterns among 17 groups in 12 Canadian cities. The results suggest that we should be cautious in taking factors derived from literature based largely on European experiences at the beginning of the last century and applying them uniformly to different groups in Canadian multiethnic cities. Our results show that the residential segregation of different racial and ethnic groups is affected by different sets of city factors. In addition, most factors suggested in that literature do not relate to the segregation patterns among visible minority groups.     

‘Ain't nothin' here in Buffalo’: Residents' perceptions about living in a racially isolated,high-poverty neighborhood

Research documents how spatial location in American metropolitan areas influences individuals' and families' life chances due to differential access to opportunity. Racial residential segregation and concentrated poverty interact to create an especially vulnerable population within American cities. Less research has been performed about the detailed perceptions of residents who live in spatially isolated neighborhoods with high levels of poverty. Using in-depth interviews in a Buffalo, New York, neighborhood, we develop a better understanding of how geographic isolation influences individuals' attitudes about and perceptions of their lives. Respondents discuss subjects ranging from transportation to employment and outline the ways in which concentrated disadvantage impacts their daily lives.     

RESIDENTIAL INTERRACIAL EXPOSURE AND ISOLATION INDICES: Mean versus Median Indices, and the Difference It Makes

Interracial exposure and isolation ( p *) indices have been widely used in studies of residential racial segregation. However, a recent pilot study raised serious issues about the use of these indices, because they are based on the mean statistic, which may yield misleading results in the case of skewed distributions, as is often the case with census tract racial compositions. An alternative median exposure index ( p *- md ) is proposed, and mean and median indices of white-to-African-American and African-American-to-white exposure, as well as white and African-American isolation, are compared for the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the United States. The analysis shows that the mean and median measures produce different results, and that most of these differences are maximized in those areas that are most segregated and, especially for African-American-to-white exposure, in areas where the largest number of African Americans live. This creates significant problems in the interpretation and use of mean exposure and isolation indices, and in most cases, the median index yields a result more representative of the residential neighborhood situation of the majority of whites and African Americans. A particular problem with the mean exposure indices currently in common use is their tendency to overstate the degree of neighborhood-level interracial contact in U.S. metropolitan areas, and, in so doing, to understate the impact of racial housing discrimination.     

The effects of racial/ethnic segregation on Latino and Black homicide

Racial/ethnic residential segregation has been shown to contribute to violence and have harmful consequences for minority groups. However, research examining the segregation–crime relationship has focused almost exclusively on blacks and whites while largely ignoring Latinos and other race/ethnic groups and has rarely considered potential mediators (e.g., concentrated disadvantage) in segregation–violence relationships. This study uses year 2000 arrest data for California and New York census places to extend segregation–crime research by comparing the effects of racial/ethnic residential segregation from whites on black and Latino homicide. Results indicate that (1) racial/ethnic segregation contributes to both Latino and black homicide, and (2) the effects for both groups are mediated by concentrated disadvantage. Implications for segregation–violence relationships, the racial-invariance position, and the Latino paradox are discussed.     

Unfair treatment, neighborhood effects, and mental health in the Detroit metropolitan area

Why do racial differences in many indicators of mental and emotional well-being show inconsistent patterns? We propose that mental and emotional well-being are influenced by aspects of the social context, including experiences of unfair treatment and the concentration of households with incomes below the poverty level, and that differential exposure to these factors influences racial differences in mental well-being. We analyze the reporting of psychological distress and life satisfaction in a multistage area probability sample of 1,139 African American and white residents of the Detroit metropolitan area aged 18 and older. Both psychological distress and life satisfaction are significantly associated with exposure to unfair treatment and with the proportion of households in the census block group that were below the poverty level. Racial differences in psychological distress and life satisfaction were eliminated or reversed once differentials in the percent of households living below the poverty line and exposure to unfair treatment were accounted for. These findings contribute to a growing body of evidence that "race" effects operate through multiple pathways that include race-based residential segregation and its attendant economic disinvestment at the community level, and interpersonal experiences of unfair treatment.     

Race,poverty, and markets: urban inequality after the neoliberal turn

Classic scholarship on the problem of urban inequality tends to highlight the absence of “the market” and the correspondingly problematic and inadequate role of the state in poor communities. This article explores how the relationship between markets and urban poverty has shifted in recent decades. Scholars have become increasingly attentive to the growing influence of market logics and privatization—core features of “neoliberal” change—in areas such as housing, education, federal policy, local politics, employment, and social services. I discuss how this recent work adds to our understanding of how markets shape urban disadvantage. I also argue that—given the rising influence of market logics in city governance—urban scholarship stands to benefit from a deeper engagement with insights from the field of economic sociology. Building bridges between the two subfields, I argue, will help to specify what markets mean in the lives of the urban poor, and also can bring issues of race and poverty to the attention of economic sociologists.     

Metropolitan Heterogeneity and Minority Neighborhood Attainment: Spatial Assimilation or Place Stratification?

Using geo-referenced data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, in conjunction with decennial census data, this research examines metropolitan-area variation in the ability of residentially mobile blacks, Hispanics, and whites to convert their income into two types of neighborhood outcomes-neighborhood racial composition and neighborhood socioeconomic status. For destination tract racial composition, we find strong and near-universal support for the "weak version" of place stratification theory; relative to whites, the effect of individual income on the percent of the destination tract population that is non-Hispanic white is stronger for blacks and Hispanics, but even the highest earning minority group members move to tracts that are "less white" than the tracts that the highest-earning whites move to. In contrast, for moves into neighborhoods characterized by higher levels of average family income, we find substantial heterogeneity across metropolitan areas in minorities' capacity to convert income into neighborhood quality. A slight majority of metropolitan areas evince support for the "strong version" of place stratification theory, in which blacks and Hispanics are less able than whites to convert income into neighborhood socioeconomic status. However, a nontrivial number of metropolitan areas also evince support for spatial assimilation theory, where the highest-earning minorities achieve neighborhood parity with the highest-earning whites. Several metropolitan-area characteristics, including residential segregation, racial and ethnic composition, immigrant population size, poverty rates, and municipal fragmentation, emerge as significant predictors of minority-white differences in neighborhood attainment.     

Racial Residential Segregation in Urban America

There are numerous causes and consequences of racial residential segregation in American metropolitan areas, and a long-standing literature is filled with debates about them. We provide an overview of the trends and patterns regarding racial residential segregation, focusing primarily on blacks and whites. We pay special attention to the competing arguments about race and class in the context of residential stratification. We then discuss the many causes of residential segregation, and its social and economic consequences. After the overview, we identify key gaps in the literature. We discuss three broad substantive areas of research that expand the study of racial residential segregation: (i) the everyday experiences of race, class, and gender disadvantage as they are related to segregation; (ii) contemporary immigration streams and their impact on black-white residential dynamics; and (iii) the power of political-economic forces to transform residentially segregated spaces, with a particular emphasis on processes related to gentrification and home mortgage lending.     

The Case of Cubans: Racial Inequality in U.S. Homeownership and Home Values

Prior research finds that human capital may explain racial housing inequality, whereas others note the historical role that race played in creating unequal housing conditions. This study uses the case of Cubans in the United States to examine whether human capital explains Black–White housing inequalities, or if they are a result of nativity/cohort differences—a proxy for the federal policies that supported Cubans’ economic and social incorporation. Using pooled data from the American Community Survey, I examine how human capital characteristics and nativity/migration cohorts shape odds of homeownership and predicted home values among Cubans. Extended analyses using decomposition methods find that although human capital characteristics are important, they play a smaller role in explaining Black–White differences in homeownership and home values. Indicative of the changing structure of racial stratification in the United States, results reveal substantial inequality among the oldest of Cuban immigrants and U.S.‐born Cubans, despite a trend toward declining inequality among recent arrivals. Supported by the literature of systemic racism, the case of Cubans shows how human capital explanations do not sufficiently explain racial housing inequalities and how the future of racial stratification is one of inter‐ and intra‐ethnic group inequality.     

NEIGHBORHOOD IMMIGRATION AND NATIVE OUT-MIGRATION

This study combines data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics with data from four censuses to examine the effects of foreign-born populations in the immediate neighborhood of residence and surrounding neighborhoods on the residential mobility decisions of native-born black and white householders. We find that the likelihood of out-mobility for native householders is significantly and positively associated with the relative size of, and increases in, the immigrant population in the neighborhood. Consistent with theoretical arguments related to the distance dependence of mobility, large concentrations of immigrants in surrounding areas reduce native out-mobility, presumably by reducing the attractiveness of the most likely mobility destinations. A sizable share of local immigration effects can be explained by the mobility-related characteristics of native-born individuals living in immigrant-populated areas, but the racial composition of the neighborhood (for native whites) and local housing market conditions (for native blacks) also are important mediating factors. The implications of these patterns for processes of neighborhood change and broader patterns of residential segregation are discussed.     

Emerging Patterns of Hispanic Residential Segregation: Lessons from Rural and Small‐Town America

The past two decades have ushered in a period of widespread spatial diffusion of Hispanics well beyond traditional metropolitan gateways. This article examines emerging patterns of racial and ethnic residential segregation in new Hispanic destinations over the 1990–2010 period, linking county, place, and block data from the 1990, 2000, and 2010 decennial censuses. Our multiscalar analyses of segregation are framed by classical models of immigrant assimilation and alternative models of place stratification. We ask whether Hispanics are integrating spatially with the native population and whether recent demographic and economic processes have eroded or perpetuated racial boundaries in nonmetropolitan areas. We show that Hispanic residential segregation from whites is often exceptionally high and declining slowly in rural counties and communities. New Hispanic destinations, on average, have higher Hispanic segregation levels than established gateway communities. The results also highlight microscale segregation patterns within rural places and in the open countryside (i.e., outside places), a result that is consistent with emerging patterns of “white flight.” Observed estimates of Hispanic‐white segregation across fast‐growing nonmetropolitan counties often hide substantial heterogeneity in residential segregation. Divergent patterns of rural segregation reflect local‐area differences in population dynamics, economic inequality, and the county employment base (using Economic Research Service functional specialization codes). Illustrative maps of Hispanic boom counties highlight spatially uneven patterns of racial diversity. They also provide an empirical basis for our multivariate analyses, which show that divergent patterns of local‐area segregation often reflect spatial variation in employment across different industrial sectors.     

Still Life in Black and White: Effects of Racial and Class Attitudes on Prospects for Residential Integration in Atlanta

I use the 1993 Atlanta Survey of Urban Inequality to evaluate the effects of five types of racial and class attitudes on assessments of the desirability of residential integration: (1) preferences for neighbors of the same race, (2) perceived racial differences in social class characteristics, (3) Whites'perceptions of group threat from Blacks, (4) Blacks'perceptions of discrimination, and (5) negative racial stereotypes. For Whites the strongest predictors of resistance to integration are negative racial stereotypes and perceptions of group threat from Blacks. For Blacks in-group preferences, negative racial stereotypes and, to a small extent, beliefs that Whites tend to discriminate against other groups are positively associated with resistance to integration. I conclude by arguing that since racial attitudes are linked to attitudes about residential integration, open housing advocates should focus their efforts on addressing persistent racial mistrusts and prejudices.     

Sundown Town to “Little Mexico”: Old‐timers and Newcomers in an American Small Town*

Abstract For more than a century, communities across the United States legally employed strategies to create and maintain racial divides. One particularly widespread and effective practice was that of “sundown towns,” which signaled to African Americans and others that they were not welcome within the city limits after dark. Though nearly 1,000 small towns, larger communities, and suburbs across the country may have engaged in these practices, until recently there has been little scholarship on the topic. Drawing from qualitative and quantitative sources, this article presents a case study of a midwestern rural community with a sundown history. Since 1990 large numbers of Mexican migrants have arrived there to work at the local meat‐processing plant, earning the town the nickname “Little Mexico.” The study identifies a substantial decline in Hispanic‐white residential segregation in the community between 1990 and 2000. We consider possible explanations for the increased spatial integration of Latino and white residents, including local housing characteristics and the weak enforcement of preexisting housing policies. We also describe the racialized history of this former sundown town and whether, paradoxically, its history of excluding nonwhites may have played a role in the spatial configurations of Latinos and non‐Hispanic whites in 2000. Scholars investigating the contemporary processes of Latino population growth in “new” destinations, both in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas, may want to explore the importance of sociohistorical considerations, particularly localities' racialized historical contexts before the arrival of Mexican and other Latino immigrants.