ancient cities

266 Fair Housing
Further Readings
Berry, Brian J. L., ed. 1971. “Comparative Factorial
Ecology.” Economic Geography 47(Supplement).
———. 1972. “Latent Structure of the American Urban
System.” Pp. 1–60 in City Classification Handbook,
edited by B. J. L. Berry. New York: Wiley.
Berry, Brian J. L. and Philip H. Rees. 1969. “The
Factorial Ecology of Calcutta.” American Journal of
Sociology 74(5):445–91.
Sweetser, F. L. 1965. “Factorial Ecology: Helsinki,
1960.” Demography 2:372–85.
Fa i r Ho u s i n g
Fair housing policy is a product of the American
civil rights movement. Prior to the 1960s,
American laws promoted segregation and discrimination
in the housing market. Although the
Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
granted equal protection of the laws to Anglos
and African Americans, segregationists argued
that these provisions did not prevent the government
from separating the races, hence “separate
but equal.” In response, civil rights proponents
noted that access to resources, such as adequate
housing, was not distributed equally, and, in turn,
the races were separate but not equal, rendering
the laws unconstitutional.
Anglo communities populated good neighborhoods,
and minorities inhabited bad neighborhoods.
Moreover, with the expansion of Anglo
suburbanization and urban decline after World
War II, the polarization of housing opportunity
grew. Predominately African American and Latino
communities were left behind in the urban centers,
where the built environment suffered from public
and private disinvestment. Consequently, removing
discriminatory barriers to minority movement
into good neighborhoods became a central objective
of fair housing advocacy.
Federal Action
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive
Order 11063, barring racial discrimination in federally
assisted housing. Congress followed in 1964
with the U.S. Civil Rights Code. However, civil
rights advocates argued that the central problems
of segregation and unequal access to housing
remained unaddressed. After extended debate, one
week after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., and one year following the civil riots of
1967, Congress amended the code with Title VIII,
known as the Fair Housing Act (FHA) of 1968.
The act declared that “it is the policy of the United
States to provide, within constitutional limitations,
for fair housing throughout the United States.” To
do so, it prohibited discrimination in the sale or
rental of housing based on race, color, country of
origin, and religion. The law abolished exclusionary
zoning and mandated equal access to housing
tenure, mortgage credit, and good neighborhoods
through integration.
Twenty years later, the Fair Housing Amendments
Act (FHAA) of 1988 expanded the categories
of protected groups to include disability and
familial status. Problems of enforcement of the act,
however, have been endemic. In 1988, various
amendments addressed enforcement issues and
many other practical limitations of the legislation.
New enforcement measures were created to address
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD) administrative complaints. As a
result, HUD was authorized to initiate discrimination
cases; punitive damages and attorneys fees
applicable to private lawsuits were liberalized; and
Congress authorized the Justice Department to
award civil penalties to injured parties. In addition,
the amendments created administrative law
judges within HUD.
As stipulated by the FHA, and as amended,
property owners, real estate and insurance agents,
and residents are sanctioned from engaging in
practices that exclude protected groups from housing
access and/or impose increased costs relative to
nonprotected clients. Notwithstanding legislation,
however, discrimination continues to be prevalent
in U.S. housing markets. Significant practices
addressed by fair housing laws include steering,
exclusion, harassment, poor service quality, exploitation,
and blockbusting.
Steering occurs when real estate agents guide
clients to vacancies in neighborhoods where there is
a significant population of similar people. If clients
are interested in renting or purchasing housing in
an area where their race or ethnicity is relatively
underrepresented, the agent may discourage pursuit
of the property. This practice complicates processes