Housing and the Resegregation of Schools

The resegregation of schools in North Carolina and the problems it causes has been a recent headlining topic in the media. What has not been highlighted is the connection between housing and the racial balance of schools.

Nearly five decades ago, the Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education court case mandated integration of schools in America. However, for the past two decades, school districts have encountered shifts in the racial balance, particularly with many parents and school administrators calling for the creation of neighborhood schools. It is not merely neighborhood schools that create segregation, but neighborhood schools within communities that are racially isolated either due to discriminatory real estate practices or from "white flight"/suburban sprawl.

In a study completed in 1999 by researchers Gary Orfield and John T. Yun for Harvard's Civil Rights Project, the South was found to be one of the most racially segregated regions of the U.S. Locally, North Carolina schools are not doing any better. Researchers Charles Clotfeller, Helen Fodd, and Jacob Vigdor of Duke's Sanford Institute of Public Policy found that "segregation within public schools, just like segregation between schools, has been increasing in most parts of North Carolina since the mid 1990's" (quoted in News and Observer, Division on the Inside, September 2002).

Many school districts that are segregated run into a myriad of problems, ranging from high concentrations of poverty, to low student achievement, to lack of funding. Researchers Orfield and Yun comment, "Segregation, however, pushes us in the opposite direction because it creates more unequal schools, particularly for low-income minority children" (Resegregation in American Schools, Civil Rights Project, Harvard Law, 1999). Low-income minority children often have extremely low academic achievement rates in segregated or unequal schools, leading to poor preparation for college and jobs.

How Housing Plays a Role

After World War II, there was a high demand in America for new housing, which led to federal legislation such as Title 2 that guaranteed loans for mortgages. However, there were restrictions on what type of loans the government would underwrite. The loan had to be for new housing, which meant that the federal money could not to be used to renovate homes or rental units in older urban communities. The only new housing stock that was available was located in the suburbs, where the poorest of the poor could not afford to live due to transportation. Also, certain areas of town, often ethnic neighborhoods, were considered too risky for the government to underwrite loans.

Urban revitalization efforts of the late 1960's and early 1970's led to the creation of housing "projects," that have often been described as "filing cabinets for the poor." These developments isolated the poor, often leading to racially segregated communities. Renee Maxwell, lead organizer for The Coalition to Protect Public Housing in Chicago commented, " Hispanics and Whites did not want to move into public housing because of [the negative] stigma." Maxwell has been a life-long resident of the infamous Cabrini Green Housing Projects in Chicago and describes the housing project as once being a mixed community.

Real estate practices have also played a major role in segregating communities. Discriminatory practices in the early 1960's marketed suburban homes to white families as a means of escaping integration in schools and in neighborhoods. Even today, developers lure families to suburban areas with the knowledge that they will be racially and socioeconmically isolated. What is now commonly known as white/urban flight spawned suburban sprawl, leaving central cities with high concentrations of poverty and, for the most part, racially isolated. The communities are often left with extremely low tax bases (the means by which schools and other public services are normally funded), creating underfunded neighborhood schools.

What Can Be Done?

Housing initiatives that aim to decrease segregation in schools should focus on diversifying communities. Diverse communities offer a dispersed amount of affordable housing that give low-income households to have a wide range of housing options. Orfield and Yun of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard recommend "a policy of strong support for diverse suburban communities by the Education, HUD, and Justice Departments. This would include research on successful local practices that create integrated communities and vigorous enforcement against housing market and lending practices that spread segregation" (Resegregation in American Schools, 1999).

Julius Chambers, former chancellor of N.C. Central University and director of the UNC Center for Civil Rights commented in the News and Observer article entitled Everybody Ought to Have a Chance (September 2002), "We need to do more to promote integration of housing and to make sure that people are able to enjoy comfortable housing at any place in the community. What we are doing now is building what we call "affordable housing" or other housing that is setting up continued segregation that we should be trying to eliminate."

There are many housing initiatives to choose from that can help to integrate neighborhoods and local schools.

Smart Growth

Smart growth policies can assist in diversifying neighborhoods. For example, fair share housing programs and inclusionary zoning can foster integration of neighborhoods. Fair share housing programs mandate that communities provide a certain amount of affordable housing, and base housing allocation on "analysis and projections of local and regional needs" (State Fair Share' Programs, Triangle Regional Principles Project, June 2001). New Jersey boasts one of the most successful fair share housing programs in the country; the policy has stood up to lawsuits for almost two decades. Inclusionary zoning programs are similar, but require that a new housing development of a certain size include a percentage of affordable housing.

Policies that encourage developers to offer a range of housing in the suburbs can aid in integrating communities. Local governments can offer incentives to developers, such as offering sites at lower costs and making building permit processes simpler.

HOPE VI Programs

HOPE VI urban revitalization programs create mixed income and mixed use communities on old public housing sites. This modern residential redevelopment program began in 1993, in order to decentralize poverty in public housing projects. In a mixed income community, families of varying income levels and races live together. Hope VI environments can promote and foster diversity by incorporating managing techniques and diversity programs in conjunction with housing. The Jones Family Apartments development, located in San Francisco, is one successful Hope VI program. In a study called Mixed Income Housing: Factors for Success, (Cityscape, Vol. 3, #2) Paul C. Brophy and Rhonda N. Smith describe the San Francisco community as "upwardly mobile" and "extremely diverse". This area has successfully created a neighborhood with varying ethnicities, such as Arab, Asian, Hispanic and African-American.

However, in order for HOPE VI programs to be successful, housing must be made available to all participants during the building process and after. Often, families are displaced from their communities and are unable to find housing while the old developments are being rebuilt. Once the community has been rehabilitated, some of the old tenants do not have housing because only 30% - 35% of the new housing stock is available to low-income households.

Real Estate

Discriminatory real estate and lending practices need to be curtailed. Legislation, including Fair Housing laws, has been passed that rules out discrimination when marketing real estate. However, discrimination continues. Potential housing buyers need to be aware of their rights and should report any discriminatory real estate tactics, marketing strategies, or lending practices to a local Fair Housing center.

Low-Income Housing Tax Credits

Federal and state low-income housing tax credits are awarded as incentives to developers of affordable housing. The process by which the credits are allocated can be fiercely competitive and is judged by several criteria, including where the project is sited. Projects are discouraged from fostering a concentration of poverty. As stated in the 2002 Qualified Allocated Plan, used by the NC Housing Finance Agency to determine how tax credits are awarded: "Existing neighborhood and surrounding land uses are compatible with proposed development. The site should be in a stable, established area not experiencing decline proposed development does not add to an existing concentration of income targeted, assisted or subsidized units.

Thanks to our intern, Sonye Randolph, for researching and co-writing this brief.