Century Foundation Fellow Argues for an "Economic Fair Housing Act" to Combat Racial Zoning
Supreme Court rulings that outlawed racial zoning hardly ended racial discrimination in housing, as whites adopted biased policies like economic zoning that banned apartment buildings in areas designated for single-family homes, often adding minimum lot size requirements to boot.
Because African-Americans were disproportionately low-income, economic zoning was in effect exclusionary, accomplishing much of the same results as explicit racial zoning. Because the laws did nothing to address economically exclusionary zoning, notwithstanding the disparate racial impact, we need a new “economic fair housing act” to prohibit or discourage local ordinances that unnecessarily exclude people from entire neighborhoods and their schools...
Check out the recently published report here.