Housing discrimination in the United States refers to the historical and current barriers, policies, and biases that prevent equitable access to housing. Housing discrimination became more pronounced after the abolition of slavery in 1865, typically as part of Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation. The federal government didn't begin to take action against these laws until 1917, when the Supreme Court struck down ordinances prohibiting African-Americans from occupying or owning buildings in majority-white neighborhoods in Buchanan v. Warley. However, the federal government as well as local governments continued to be directly responsible for housing discrimination through redlining and race-restricted covenants until the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
This Act included legislation known as the Fair Housing Act, which made it unlawful for a landlord to discriminate against or prefer a potential tenant based on their race, color, religion, gender, or national origin, when advertising or negotiating the sale or rental of housing. Such protections have also been extended to other "protected classes" including disabilities and familial status. Despite these efforts, studies have shown that housing discrimination still exists and that the resulting segregation has led to wealth, educational, and health disparities.Shapiro, Thomas and Jessica Kenty-Drane. 2005. "The Racial Wealth Gap," in Cecilia A. Conrad, John Whitehead, Patrick Mason, and James Steward (eds.) African Americans in the U.S. Economy. Part IV, Chapter 19, pp. 175- 181, Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. The prevalence of housing discrimination and redlining in the United States has led to wide-ranging impacts upon various aspects of the structure of society, such as housing inequality and educational inequality. These phenomena can be seen through the lens of critical race theory as examples of systemic racism.
The Fair Housing Act, which was part of the Civil Rights Act, made it illegal for landlords to discriminate against potential tenants based on their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin when selling or renting housing. Protections have since been extended to additional "protected classes" including individuals with disabilities and families with children. Despite these legal protections, housing discrimination persists, contributing to disparities in wealth, education, and health outcomes. Scholars have noted that government policies promoting homeownership historically favored middle and upper income white families while excluding minorities and low income Americans, reinforcing patterns of inequality and limiting access to wealth building opportunities.U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Fair Housing Act Overview
History After the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, Jim Crow laws were introduced. These laws led to the discrimination of racial and ethnic minorities, especially African Americans. While Jim Crow laws spread throughout the South, more subtle discriminatory practices were implemented in the North. Between 1900 and 1920, there was growth in the African American population, many of whom migrated to the North as part of the Great Migration. This led to a reaction by whites in Northern cities, fueling housing discrimination and residential segregation, which had previously not been as visible. Institutional tools such as zoning and racially restricted covenants were used as a way to stop the spread of African Americans into white neighborhoods. In 1926, racially restrictive covenants were upheld by the Supreme Court case Corrigan v. Buckley. After this ruling, these covenants became popular across the country as a way to guarantee white, homogeneous neighborhoods. In Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. in 1926, the Supreme Court also upheld exclusionary zoning.
Fifteen state courts obeyed ordinances that enforced the denial of housing to African American and other minority groups in white-zoned areas. In the 1917 Supreme Court case Buchanan v. Warley, the court ruled that a Louisville, Kentucky ordinance prohibiting blacks from owning or occupying buildings in a majority-white neighborhood, and vice versa, was unconstitutional. Following this decision, however, nineteen states began legally supporting "covenants," or agreements, between property owners to not rent or sell any homes to racial or ethnic minorities. Although the covenants were later made illegal in 1948, they were still allowed to be in private deeds.Silver, Christopher (1997). The Racial Origins of Zoning in American Cities. In Thomas, JM; Ritzdorf, M. "Urban Planning & the African American Community: In the Shadows". Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publ.. .
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was responsible for much of the housing discrimination in the US due to explicit racially discriminatory policies. The FHA believed allowing Black Americans to live in white neighborhood would decrease the property value. This justification, however, was disproven as Black Americans were willing to pay higher prices to live in those neighborhoods. The FHA was also responsible for denying mortgage insurance to Black neighborhoods, a practice known as redlining. This entailed categorizing neighborhoods according to risk level for lending. This risk level depended largely upon the racial composition of these neighborhoods. The FHA's Underwriting Manual explicitly encouraged "prohibition of the occupancy of properties except by the race for which they were intended." Encouraged by the FHA, developers established deed restrictions to maintain white neighborhoods.
Another discriminatory practice was called blockbusting. Blockbusting was when real estate agents persuaded owners to sell property cheaply because of the fear of people of another ethnic or social group moving into the neighborhood, and then profiting by reselling at a higher price to actual minorities. According to: Chicago fed.org, within one neighborhood in Baltimore, blockbusters bought two-thirds of all properties and 96% of the neighborhood’s population in 1950 had relocated by 1970. They identified reports of blockbusting in 45 of the 60 largest cities in the U.S. during the 1950s and 1960s.
The GI bill allowed many veterans to become homeowners, leading to a housing boom. However, this bill did not support Black veterans in the same way because mortgages and loans were not provided by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs but by private mortgage lenders who often discriminated through redlining. Levittown was a neighborhood built to provide affordable housing for returning veterans from World War II, but the developer refused to allow people of color to live there. The FHA backed this decision by authorizing loans and providing racially-restricted deeds.
It was not until the Fair Housing Act, enacted as Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, that the federal government made its first concrete steps to deem all types of housing discrimination unconstitutional."President Signs Civil Rights Bill; Pleads for Calm" New York Times, April 12, 1968. The act explicitly prohibits housing discrimination practices common at the time, including filtering information about a home's availability, racial steering, blockbusting, and redlining.Yinger, John. 1998. "Closed Doors Opportunities Lost: the continuing cost of housing Discrimination." New York: Russell Sage Foundation
Fair Housing Act
The Fair Housing Act was passed at the urging of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Congress passed the federal Fair Housing Act (codified at 42 U.S.C. 3601-3619, penalties for violation at 42 U.S.C. 3631) Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 only one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
The Fair Housing Act introduced meaningful federal enforcement mechanisms.
It outlawed:
Refusal to sell or rent a dwelling to any person because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin in the terms, conditions or privilege of the sale or rental of a dwelling. Advertising the sale or rental of a dwelling indicating preference of discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin. Coercing, threatening, intimidating, or interfering with a person's enjoyment or exercise of housing rights based on discriminatory reasons or retaliating against a person or organization that aids or encourages the exercise or enjoyment of fair housing rights.
When the Fair Housing Act was first enacted, it prohibited discrimination only on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. In 1988, disability and familial status (the presence or anticipated presence of children under 18 in a household) were added (further codified in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990). In certain circumstances, the law allows limited exceptions for discrimination based on sex, religion, or familial status.
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development is the federal executive department with the statutory authority to administer and enforce the Fair Housing Act. The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development has delegated fair housing enforcement and compliance activities to HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) and HUD's Office of General Counsel. FHEO is one of the United States' largest federal civil rights agencies. It has a staff of more than 600 people located in 54 offices around the United States. As of June 2014, the head of FHEO is Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Gustavo Velasquez, whose appointment was confirmed on June 19, 2014.
Individuals who believe they have experienced housing discrimination can file a complaint with FHEO at no charge. FHEO funds and has working agreements with many state and local governmental agencies where "substantially equivalent" fair housing laws are in place. Under these agreements, FHEO refers complaints to the state or locality where the alleged incident occurred, and those agencies investigate and process the case instead of FHEO. This is known as FHEO's Fair Housing Assistance Program (or "FHAP").
There is also a network of private, non-profit fair housing advocacy organizations throughout the country. Some are funded by FHEO's Fair Housing Initiatives Program (or "FHIP"), and some operate with private donations or grants from other sources.
However, victims of housing discrimination need not go through HUD or any other governmental agency to pursue their rights. The Fair Housing Act confers jurisdiction to hear cases on federal district courts. The United States Department of Justice also has jurisdiction to file cases on behalf of the United States where there is a pattern and practice of discrimination or where HUD has found discrimination in a case and either party elects to go to federal court instead of continuing in the HUD administrative process.
The Fair Housing Act applies to landlords renting or leasing space in their primary residence only if the residence contains living quarters occupied or intended to be occupied by three or more other families living independently of each other, such as an owner-occupied rooming house.