The Color of Law A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein (z-lib.org).epub

VI
ACTIONS OF government in housing cannot be neutral about segregation.
They will either exacerbate or reverse it. Without taking care to do
otherwise, exacerbation is more likely. The federal government now operates
two large programs to address the housing crisis faced by the poor and nearpoor,
most of whom, in many metropolitan areas, are African American.
Without an intent to do so, each program has been implemented in a manner
that deepens racial segregation. One, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit,
subsidizes developers whose multiunit projects are available to low-income
families. The other, Housing Choice Vouchers (popularly known as “Section
8”), subsidizes families’ rental payments so they can lease housing that they
would not otherwise be able to afford.
In the tax credit program, communities can veto developers’ proposals,
something that officials in middle-class areas don’t hesitate to do. Many
policy makers urge developers to build in already segregated neighborhoods
in the hope (usually a vain one) that their projects will revitalize
deteriorating areas. Developers themselves also prefer to use tax credits in
low-income neighborhoods because land is cheaper, it is easier to market
new apartments to renters in the immediate vicinity, and there is less
political opposition to additional housing for minorities and lower-income
families. These conditions ensure that tax credit projects will have a
disparate impact on African Americans, reinforcing neighborhood
segregation. An analysis of all tax credit units nationwide, completed
through 2005, found that about three-fourths were placed in neighborhoods
where poverty rates were at least 20 percent.
In the Section 8 program, landlords in most states and cities can legally
refuse to rent to tenants who use housing vouchers, although a few
jurisdictions prohibit such discrimination. The voucher amount is usually too
small to allow for rentals in middle-class areas. A family that receives a
voucher may find that the only way to take advantage of it is to move to a
neighborhood even more segregated than the one where they were already
living. As a result, few families with children who used Section 8 vouchers
rented apartments in low-poverty neighborhoods in 2010, while over half