Housing

Research in this section focuses attention on the structure of and access to housing opportunities created by the intersection of housing with other metropolitan and regional factors.

Losing Ground: School Segregation in Massachusetts

The time has come for Massachusetts to get serious about dealing more effectively with its diversity. Because the nonwhite populations have historically been small and there is a general white attitude that the state is progressive and has done enough, the issues are often ignored.

The Resegregation of Suburban Schools: A Hidden Crisis in American Education

Erica Frankenberg is an assistant professor in the department of education policy studies in the College of Education at the Pennsylvania State University. Gary Orfield is a professor of education, law, political science and urban planning, and codirector of the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The Opportunity Illusion: Subsidized Housing and Failing Schools in California

The nation’s largest low income housing production program, the awkwardly named Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), is providing billions of dollars for building homes across the country. It has been the only significant source of funds for building housing for poor families since the l980s. Yet few people know of its existence, fewer understand its complex mechanisms, and there has been virtually no information to answer critical questions about it. What we do know is that LIHTC is a costly program producing much needed affordable housing in one of the nation’s most expensive housing markets, where millions of people cannot afford to pay the cost of adequate housing. Who is it helping? Is it giving the children in these homes a better chance in life? Is it serving all groups in our society fairly? Is it opening up housing across the region’s color lines or is it investing in segregation? These are vital questions to ask, especially now with the collapse of the housing market and the financing freeze stalling new projects. Broadly speaking, is the public investment paying off for those it is supposed to help?

New Faces, Old Patterns? Segregation in the Multiracial South

If desegregation plans were still in effect we would expect that as the share of whites in a state declined, white students would tend to be in schools that, on average, had an increased share of black students. In several states, however, even though the percentage of white students has declined significantly, the level of white contact with blacks actually fell.

The Imprint of Preferences and Racial Attitudes in the 1990s: A Window Into Contemporary Residential Segregation Patterns in the Greater Boston Area

If we truly desire to keep integration on the upswing and to hasten segregation’s descent, we must continue to effectively harness and improve the resources and tools at our disposal—including social science research.

Integration or Resegregation: Metropolitan Chicago at the Turn of the New Century

The data show that the Chicago metropolitan area is at an extremely important point in its racial and ethnic history. The White population can continue to turn its back on their African- American and Latino counterparts, in a fruitless effort to escape them. Or they can embrace them and, in unison, build an integrated metropolitan area.

Race, Place, and Opportunity: Racial Change and Segregation in the San Diego Metropolitan Area: 1990 - 2000

The future of the San Diego area is inexorably linked to the well-being of its minority populations, most strongly in the cities and inner-suburbs, but increasingly throughout the region. While moderately-high levels of racial segregation characterize the City, recent trends raise the specter that this pattern may be duplicated in growing suburbs, especially for Latinos.