50 Years After Passage Of The Fair Housing Act, It’s Time To Sue The Suburbs

[M II A II R II K]

America’s Racist Housing Rules Really Can Be Fixed


Feb 17, 2021

By Jerusalem Demsas

Read More: https://www.vox.com/22252625/america...les-how-to-fix

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Neighborhoods matter. As Vox’s Dylan Matthews reported, researchers Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, and Lawrence Katz found in 2016 that moving to a wealthier neighborhood not only increased the likelihood that kids would go to college, but also increased earnings by roughly 31 percent by the time they’d reached their mid-20s. — Single-family zoning, which means it’s illegal to build anything other than single-family homes, is prevalent in the suburb. Single-family homes are more expensive than apartments, townhomes, or duplexes, and that makes rent costly, too.

- Exclusionary zoning laws essentially trap many Black families into low-income neighborhoods by pricing them out of richer ones. — Ending residential segregation would allow Americans to move from poor neighborhoods or cities to richer ones and allow lower-skilled workers to find better-paying jobs. To put a number on it, exclusionary zoning has artificially inflated the price of housing so much that one paper estimated that from 1964 to 2009, it lowered aggregate growth by more than 50 percent. — This problem may feel like a tragedy of local governments and NIMBY-ism run amuck. But there’s actually a lot President Joe Biden’s administration can do about it right now. Biden can tie public concern over racial justice to tangible changes people can make at the local level. He can also tie federal dollars to mandates to reduce exclusionary zoning. And if all else fails, his administration can sue the jurisdictions that are knowingly perpetuating segregation.

- Comprehensive federal protections from housing discrimination wouldn’t come about until 1968. Following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Congress passed the Fair Housing Act, an extraordinary piece of civil rights legislation that not only clarified that it was in fact illegal to discriminate due to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability, but also that the government had the obligation to “affirmatively further fair housing.” — Despite this mandate, zoning laws proliferated that have entrenched de facto discrimination. Instead of explicitly barring people due to their race, these laws have taken the form of regulations like minimum sizes for new homes, which effectively ban more affordable dwellings. Localities have also weaponized seemingly neutral regulations that make the cost of development so exorbitant that the only profitable type of homes to build are large or luxury units.

- Biden could help draw the racial justice connection for these communities by alleviating their concerns about property values, pointing to the environmental impact of sprawl, and making it clear that banning multi-family homes is in direct opposition to progressive goals around equal opportunity. — But this goes beyond appealing to suburbanites on progressive grounds. The overarching argument that needs to be made, not only to voters but to Democratic leaders in cities, counties, and states is an economic one. Residential segregation shrinks the pot, and increasingly even more affluent, white college graduates are feeling the squeeze as they struggle to find housing in high-opportunity cities. — Both fair housing lawyers and policy wonks say the Biden administration should work with jurisdictions to provide technical and planning assistance in its aims to rid itself of exclusionary zoning practices.

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[the urban politician]

Vox

[jtown,man]

It's almost as if the environment you live in contributes to how you act and fail/succeed in life!

People do better in wealthier areas, even if they are poorer because they aren't surrounded by horribly anti-social people who bring down everything around them: they cause crime, raise prices, run out businesses, and otherwise make life unbearable for those around them.

[jmecklenborg]

This article must be a joke.

Indian-Americans and East Asian Americans are blowing away white Americans in average household income and net worth. The typical Indian-American family is earning $120,000/yr - triple what the average white American family does.

All of these articles continue to present race/class issues in the United States as a binary - white vs. black, when newer groups have managed to leave both whites and blacks in the rearview mirror. By the 2030s both Indians and East Asians will command a ton of power positions throughout the United States while blacks and rural whites (or rather mostly whites of English and Scottish descent) will continue to comprise the bulk of impoverished citizens.

There is also a lot of focus by the far-left in recent years on housing. Housing is real estate which means it's local. Many white people in the middle of the country lost money on their primary residences over the decades. Many white people lost money renting out rental properties.

Wealth is built in the United States primarily by ownership of stock in publicly-traded companies. Some people have a huge amount of equity in homes in very specific areas - NYC, California, etc. - but the bulk of the country is comprised of dead towns, sad small cities, and mediocre mid-sized cities where many homes have been torn down since WWII.

[Crawford]

The article is on-point, but it's less an issue of race than class. Suburbs absolutely use illegal, exclusionary zoning. When they're sued, they almost always lose, and are required to provide affordable housing, which is good for the suburb, and the public.

The biggest problem in American sprawl is that no one knows what the hell is going on in the world. They legislate against their own interests. Even if they don't care about others, they're literally making themselves poorer in the process by making choices that harm their property values and community desirability.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

Indian-Americans and East Asian Americans are blowing away white Americans in average household income and net worth. The typical Indian-American family is earning $120,000/yr - triple what the average white American family does.

You do realize that South Asians in the U.S. are overwhelmingly highly educated professionals coming from the upper echelons of South Asian society, right?

Have you been to a hospital or tech company lately? Do you want to compare the share of South Asians in the general population to the share of South Asian MDs and Silicon Valley employees?

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Crawford

The article is on-point, but it's less an issue of race than class. Suburbs absolutely use illegal, exclusionary zoning. When they're sued, they almost always lose, and are required to provide affordable housing, which is good for the suburb, and the public.

The biggest problem in American sprawl is that no one knows what the hell is going on in the world. They legislate against their own interests. Even if they don't care about others, they're literally making themselves poorer in the process by making choices that harm their property values and community desirability.

I live in a pretty far flung suburb with very little multi-family housing and what we do have is ageing and if I were poor or had to live in an apartment, I certainly would NOT want to live out here. There are no bus lines and no access to public services.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by JManc

I live in a pretty far flung suburb with very little multi-family housing and what we do have is ageing and if I were poor or had to live in an apartment, I certainly would NOT want to live out here. There are no bus lines and no access to public services.

Right, but I'm not just talking about cheap apartments for bus-riding poors. Many suburbs have banned any new housing except for 4,000 sq. ft.+ two-floor homes on large lots, as if every single household is a thirty/forty-something high earning professional couple with a bunch of kids.

But young people generally don't want or can't afford that kind of housing. And older people generally need a different typology. And obviously many prefer a more walkable, mixed use environment. It isn't just about housing low income families, it's about housing diversity, for different income ranges, and different age/lifestyle ranges.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by Crawford

You do realize that South Asians in the U.S. are overwhelmingly highly educated professionals coming from the upper echelons of South Asian society, right?

Despite the language barrier they came over here and quickly figured out how to buy homes, start businesses, and buy stock. There is no hesitation to work 6-7 days per week.

About 15 years ago I worked with a guy from Bangladesh who worked at our place 6 days a week and then every Sunday at a gas station. He lived with a bunch of roommates. He was willing to sacrifice in order to send as much money as possible back to his family. That guy inspired me to work 7 days of week for many years and I have since except for a few layoffs during the recession.

These days we have a bunch of trust-funders calling for an end to the 40-hour workweek.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

Despite the language barrier they came over here and quickly figured out how to buy homes, start businesses, and buy stock. There is no hesitation to work 6-7 days per week.
About 15 years ago I worked with a guy from Bangladesh who worked at our place 6 days a week and then every Sunday at a gas station. He lived with a bunch of roommates. He was willing to sacrifice in order to send as much money as possible back to his family. That guy inspired me to work 7 days of week for many years and I have since except for a few layoffs during the recession.

What language barrier? India has more English speakers than any country on earth.

Do you know what MDs make? Or bigtech software engineers? Yeah, they "figured out" how to buy homes. They also don't have 400k in med school debt like Americans if they received their degrees abroad.

Pretty much any immigrant from anywhere works 6-7 days a week, BTW. That's the whole point. You didn't leave your country, culture and family to play video games and smoke pot. Hell, I'm lazy, and worked 7 days a week for a few years out of college. Some nights, I would go home, take a shower, and go back to work, no rest.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Right, but I'm not just talking about cheap apartments for bus-riding poors. Many suburbs have banned any new housing except for 4,000 sq. ft.+ two-floor homes on large lots, as if every single household is a thirty/forty-something high earning professional couple with a bunch of kids.

But young people generally don't want or can't afford that kind of housing. And older people generally need a different typology. And obviously many prefer a more walkable, mixed use environment. It isn't just about housing low income families, it's about housing diversity, for different income ranges, and different age/lifestyle ranges.

I live in a pretty Stepfordish suburb and the demand for apartment living is weak otherwise I think there would be more going up. That's not to say there are areas who flatout ban them but many people who move to neighborhoods like mine do so because they get the most bang for the buck as far as homes otherwise why move this far out? You see more multifamily in residential areas closer in town with more amenities, not the exurbs where I live. No one is really building affordable housing anymore. No money in it.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Crawford

What language barrier? India has more English speakers than any country on earth.

Do you know what MDs make? Or bigtech software engineers? Yeah, they "figured out" how to buy homes. They also don't have 400k in med school debt like Americans if they received their degrees abroad.

Pretty much any immigrant from anywhere works 6-7 days a week, BTW. That's the whole point. You didn't leave your country, culture and family to play video games and smoke pot. Hell, I'm lazy, and worked 7 days a week for a few years out of college. Some nights, I would go home, take a shower, and go back to work, no rest.

Wait until he learns that they're all legally required to have minimum starting salaries of nearly 100k/year, lol.

[llamaorama]

I get the sense that what this really means is to sue middle-ring incorporated municipalities that don't just roll over and abolish all zoning, causing financial hardships for local governments that exist to provide with taxpayer money civic functions to increasingly diverse populations.

Since 1990 or so I'd wager that most greenfield suburbia for the upper middle class is now master-planned communities in unincorporated areas with at most a special district for utilities, that utilize private deed restrictions and covenants. Those things are even less democratic, and even harder to change than zoning is, and the government can't touch it.

These people angry with suburbs are picking the wrong target. Suburban cities are not the enemy. Privatized communities and sprawl is.

Another threat here is that if suburban municipalities can't have single family zoning then it won't be enticing for existing master planned communities to drop HOA's or covenants or get annexed or to incorporate. That means that in the long run, over several decades, less and less of our metro areas will consist of incorporated city and more of it will be a mix of exclusive subdivisions and borderline "rural-urban" slums like we have here in Houston.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Right, but I'm not just talking about cheap apartments for bus-riding poors. Many suburbs have banned any new housing except for 4,000 sq. ft.+ two-floor homes on large lots, as if every single household is a thirty/forty-something high earning professional couple with a bunch of kids.

But young people generally don't want or can't afford that kind of housing. And older people generally need a different typology. And obviously many prefer a more walkable, mixed use environment. It isn't just about housing low income families, it's about housing diversity, for different income ranges, and different age/lifestyle ranges.

It’s not 2016 any more

The suburban housing market where I live is literally killing it. Beating out the city, big time.

There is plenty of demand

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

This article must be a joke.

Indian-Americans and East Asian Americans are blowing away white Americans in average household income and net worth. The typical Indian-American family is earning $120,000/yr - triple what the average white American family does.

All of these articles continue to present race/class issues in the United States as a binary - white vs. black, when newer groups have managed to leave both whites and blacks in the rearview mirror. By the 2030s both Indians and East Asians will command a ton of power positions throughout the United States while blacks and rural whites (or rather mostly whites of English and Scottish descent) will continue to comprise the bulk of impoverished citizens.

This

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

It’s not 2016 any more

The suburban housing market where I live is literally killing it. Beating out the city, big time.

There is plenty of demand

Sprawl-type areas, generally speaking, have crap housing demand. The temporary pandemic boost has already vanished.

If you're in a more mixed-use, mixed-income, walkable type suburb, yeah, you may have strong(er) demand. But sprawly areas are still getting killed. Look what people paid in Barrington in 1995 and what they pay now. It's a joke.

[the urban politician]

^ It remains to be seen how temporary the pandemic boost is, but it is far from over around here.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by Crawford

What language barrier? India has more English speakers than any country on earth.

My friend's wife's Indian dad owns 20+ apartment buildings in Ohio and his English is terrible. Another friend's mom was born and raised in Korea, likewise struggles with choppy English despite having lived here for 30+ years, yet sold 600 homes in her career as a real estate agent in the San Francisco area:
https://www.zillow.com/profile/Lilly%20Ham

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Wait until he learns that they're all legally required to have minimum starting salaries of nearly 100k/year, lol.

U.S. citizens of Asian descent are required to make $100k? What happens to those who don't?

We keep hearing from NPR and others about "systematic racism" but plenty of non-whites are not only doing well in the United States, they're wildly out-earning the perpetrators of all of that supposed systemic racism:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...usehold_income

The anti-landlord and anti-single-family home sentiment that is trying to go mainstream insinuates that any and all rental properties and single-family homes are owned by whites. Increasingly, this is not the case. What's more, anyone anywhere in the world can buy into a U.S. REIT or ETF. Accredited investors anywhere in the world can buy into a hedge fund that is doing something with U.S. residential real estate.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

U.S. citizens of Asian descent are required to make $100k? What happens to those who don't?

We keep hearing from NPR and others about "systematic racism" but plenty of non-whites are not only doing well in the United States, they're wildly out-earning the perpetrators of all of that supposed systemic racism:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...usehold_income

The anti-landlord and anti-single-family home sentiment that is trying to go mainstream insinuates that any and all rental properties and single-family homes are owned by whites. Increasingly, this is not the case. What's more, anyone anywhere in the world can buy into a U.S. REIT or ETF. Accredited investors anywhere in the world can buy into a hedge fund that is doing something with U.S. residential real estate.

Yep again

The narratives out there are so outdated, like from the 1960’s. But that is by design