About Fair Housing Elements

Check out our explainers, resources, and racial justice mission below!

A Case for Fair Housing Elements

Centuries of decisions and policies have shaped our cities to be the way they look today, including racial and economic segregation that persists into the 21st century. Over time, those decisions and policies created unequal neighborhoods with unequal access to education, jobs, safety, health, and opportunity. Local, state, and federal governments have attempted to reverse discrimination and segregation for decades, but there is still work to be done. Our coalition is committed to Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, and it informs and energizes the work that we do in the Campaign for Fair Housing Elements. 

the History and impacts of segregationist housing policy

In the beginning of the 20th century, technologies like the commuter rail and the car allowed people to move out of densely populated cities and settle in new suburbs. Many of these suburbs were built by developers who promised a community without neighbors of other races or religions. Some cities used zoning ordinances to flatly prohibit certain races from purchasing properties in specific neighborhoods. When that was deemed unconstitutional in 1917, racial exclusivity was perpetuated by unspoken “gentleman’s agreements” but also by explicit restrictions written into the property’s deed. 

Later, the New Deal and the passage of the National Housing Act of 1934 established the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) to provide loans to Americans during the Great Depression. The HOLC used a system of color-coded overlay maps and racialized descriptions to rate the risk of insuring mortgages throughout major US cities, using the descriptors “best, still desirable, declining, or hazardous.” Not coincidentally, best was typically assigned to all-white neighborhoods and hazardous was typically reserved for all-Black and “foreign-born” neighborhoods. The hazardous neighborhoods were marked in red, hence the term “redlining.” According to Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law, this practice led to de jure segregation, or segregation that was facilitated through the law.

Even though it is no longer legal, redlining has affected the lives of Americans since its inception. This government-sanctioned practice systematically denied non-white households access to mortgages and thus homeownership, preventing generations of families from building wealth through appreciating home values. This was exacerbated in California by the obliteration of once thriving Black neighborhoods through eminent domain for freeway construction, as well as decades of housing policy restricting housing supply. The patterns of wealth and disinvestment established in the early 20th century persist today in various ways. Home values are often assessed based on the predominant race of the neighborhood, or even the race of the homeowner. Formerly redlined areas experience lower life expectancy, higher rates of cancer and chronic disease, and worse performance in public schools, while many majority- or all-white neighborhoods that enjoyed early access to mortgages thrive.

legislation on fair housing

The Fair Housing Act of 1968 made it illegal in all 50 states to discriminate on housing based on race, sex, national origin, and other protected characteristics. While this was a huge win for racial justice in housing, the fight is far from over. In 2015, President Obama strengthened the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing provision of the original Act, providing more resources for assessing Fair Housing in local jurisdictions. Secretary Carson walked back these advances in AFFH law in 2018. Nevertheless, that same year California passed a bill setting new standards for Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing in each city’s Housing Element. The Campaign for Fair Housing Elements and our Member Organizations are carrying the values of Fair Housing into the 21st century, and we are committed to keeping cities accountable to this state law and to this human value.

continuing impacts of past policy

Our neighborhoods have been formed by over a century of segregation, and zoning ordinances continue to foster economic and racial divides. The use of single family zones is essentially universal in the United States, even in our largest cities. These zones generally occupy a wide area so that people who can afford to own or rent houses live in the same neighborhood. People who can afford to live in multi-family housing like apartments will also live in neighborhoods that are separate from the single family zones. This government-sanctioned segregation results in a wide disparity between basic amenities like schools, parks, grocery stores, street lighting, trees, sanitation services, and police presence.

cities adopting inclusive zoning

On January 19, 2021, the city council of the City of Sacramento voted unanimously to move forward with allowing up to four homes on any property in the city, effectively bidding farewell to single family zoning. In part, their justification reads as follows:

“Past discriminatory practices of racially restrictive covenants and government-sponsored redlining have created barriers to homeownership and inter-generational wealth-building for many minority families, and subsequent single-family zoning in high opportunity neighborhoods has reinforced it. The exclusion of lower-cost housing types (e.g. duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes) prevent lower-income residents from moving to neighborhoods with the best parks, schools, and other desirable amenities. Allowing a greater array of housing types in Sacramento’s residential neighborhoods will help create more equitable and inclusive neighborhoods by addressing the remnant forces of government policies of exclusion and racial segregation.”

how our campaign fits in

Zoning and housing policy are only some of many reforms that are needed to combat racism and injustice. Our Campaign calls upon local governments to demonstrate leadership by identifying the connection between land use regulations and the injustice, past and present. Cities must affirmatively further fair housing in their Housing Elements, and have the power to do so by planning for affordable housing in high-resource neighborhoods, avoiding displacement in poor neighborhoods, and reversing decades of policy that have needlessly created a housing shortage in our great state. If you want to advocate for Fair Housing Elements, raise your voice and get involved with our Campaign!