Abstract

The last few years have witnessed a quantum leap in the enforcement of fair housing and fair lending legislation. The 1988 Fair Housing Amendments Act gave newe enforcement powers to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Justice. For example, HUD can how initiate complaints against housing agents who discriminate. Moreover, several events, including release of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data, which show wide disparities in loan acceptance rates between whites on the one hand and blacks and Hispanics on the other, have led financial regulatory agencies such as the Federal Reserve Board and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to increase their anti-discrimination enforcement. These commendable enforcement efforts may fall short of the mark, however, because they are likely to have little impact on one of the principal sources of discrimination by real estate brokers and landlords, namely residential segregation. This policy brief argues that: (1) residential segregation, the physical separation of racial or ethnic groups, is a principal cause of continuing discrimination in housing; (2) enforcement efforts directed toward people who commit discriminatory acts are unlikely to have much effect on segregation; and (3) the federal government needs programs to attack segregation directly, that is, to support integration, as part of its anti-discriminational arsenal. The brief concludes by proposing the Stable Neighborhood Initiatives Program (SNIP), a nondiscriminatory federal program to support community integration efforts, which is designed to fill the current policy void.

Highlights

  • John Yinger, Ph.D., Professor of Economics and Public Administration, is Associate Director for the Metropolitan Studies Program, Center for Policy Research

  • The Policy Brief series is a collection of essays on current public policy issues in aging, health, income security, metropolitan studies and related research done by or on behalf of the Center for Policy Research at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs

  • Single copies of this publication may be obtained at no cost from the Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, 426 Eggers Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244-1090

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Summary

John Yinger

John Yinger, Ph.D., Professor of Economics and Public Administration, is Associate Director for the Metropolitan Studies Program, Center for Policy Research. Several events, including release of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data, which show wide disparities in loan acceptance rates between whites on the one hand and blacks and Hispanics on the other, have led financial regulatory agencies such as the Federal Reserve Board and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to increase their anti-discrimination enforcement. These commendable enforcement efforts may fall short of the mark, because they are likely to have little impact on one of the principal sources of discrimination by real estate brokers and landlords, namely residential segregation. The brief concludes by proposing the Stable Neighborhood Initiatives Program (SNIP), a nondiscriminatory federal program to support community integration efforts, which is designed to fill the current policy void

Evidence of Residential Segregation and Discrimination
The Role of Segregation in Supporting Discrimination
Neighborhood Preference and Prejudice
Findings
Discrimination Past and Present

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