Tag: fair housing
Give Housing Vouchers Their Full Power
A proposed rule change for the use of federal Housing Choice Vouchers would greatly improve the chance that housing...
The Devils in the Details: Key Issues in Implementing the New...
For most of the Fair Housing Act’s history, its requirement to “Affirmatively Further Fair Housing” has been largely dormant....
Does Screening for Eviction Records Violate the Fair Housing Act?
We tend to think of the Fair Housing Act as covering access to housing—getting “into” housing. But it also applies to staying in...
Interview with Chester Hartman, Radical Urban Planner
As he retires, the founder of the Poverty and Race Research Action Council reflects on the fields of urban planning, community development, and fair housing.
Interview with HUD Secretary Julian Castro
Shelterforce got a chance to speak with Secretary Julian Castro about some of the current ways in which he’s working to make HUD a force for good in people’s lives, and what steps there are left to be taken.
Unsafe, Segregated Housing is Never “Fair”
Concord Homes in Beaumont, Texas, is the archetype of distressed public housing in America: Physically deteriorated, environmentally blighted and built in an era when...
A Fair Approach to Fair Housing
When we received Shelterforce’s newsletter a month ago with ‘Section 8 Ghetto’ in the subject line, we were quite...
Interview with John Henneberger, Texas Low Income Housing Information Service-Part 2
John Henneberger talks about expansive definitions of fair housing, exciting organizing work in Texas that the rest of the country should keep an eye on, the role of a state-level advocacy organization, and more.
Suing the Suburbs
Fights against the displacement caused by rapid gentrification tend to focus on the gentrifying neighborhoods themselves. But some housing...
Segregation Conversation Goes National
The conversation about balancing placed-based revitalization and expanding access to high-opportunity areas has been edging onto the national radar...
Same-sex Couples Can Love, But Where Can They Live?
Same-sex couples’ right to marry is now protected, but do they have the right to housing? It is not...
Fair Housing’s Giant Two Steps Forward
It’s a rare moment when two branches of our federal government take major steps to expand opportunity for all...
A Clear SCOTUS Statement on Disparate Impact and AFFH
The importance of the disparate impact principle is clear. In today's world, few with biases wear those biases on their sleeves
CA’s Surprisingly Strong Stand in Support of Inclusionary Housing
In the whole string of related inclusionary housing decisions, what emerges is a story of a multi-decade coordinated effort by the real estate development industry to limit its reach.
Interview with John Henneberger, Texas Low Income Housing Information Service–Part 1
Shelterforce talks with John Henneberger of the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service, one of the 2014 MacArthur Fellows.
Promising News from the Post-Civil Rights Suburbs
The passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act promised greater suburban housing opportunities for people of color in the U.S. Yet, progress has been slow. Over half of African Americans, Latinos, and Asians live in the suburbs, but the typical middle-income African American household still lives in a neighborhood with a higher poverty rate than […]
Supreme Court Argument Reaffirms the Case for Disparate Impact
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week in a very important fair housing case, and the Justices’ comments from the bench have had court watchers buzzing ever since. Here’s my take on what the legal back-and-forth in the case does and does not mean. It’s safe to say that the oral argument in […]
Disparate Impact: A Texan’s Perspective
It’s important to remember, as Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project reaches the Supreme Court of the United States later this month, the actual people who bear the brunt of Texas’ history of housing discrimination. As Alan Jenkins’ earlier post on Rooflines points out, on January 21 the Supreme […]
There’s Really No Argument Against Disparate Impact
When a housing policy has the effect of perpetuating racial exclusion, and that policy is unnecessary or unjustified, it must be set aside or changed under the Fair Housing Act, whether or not the politicians who passed it were intentionally focused on racial discrimination. But now, that important principle is at risk.
“Nowhere to Live Safe”: Moving to Peace and Safety
We all experience stress in our daily lives, whether financial worries or problems at work or at home. Few of us escape some exposure to “adverse childhood experiences.” But many low-income families have to live, day in and day out, with corrosive fear for their children’s basic safety. A new policy brief, authored by researchers […]