Housing Segregation

Housing Segregation is the practice of denying African American or other minority groups equal access to housing through the process of misinformation, denial of realty and financing services, and racial steering. Misinformation can take the form of realtors or landlords not giving African American groups an accurate portrayal of available units. Racial steering typically occurs when Realtors or landlords steer European Americans to available units in white communities, and African Americans to black or racially mixed communities. Generally, racial steering involves misinformation on the part of the realtor or landlord as well, because they will not tell the African Americans about the available units in the European American communities.

These subtle discriminatory measures have taken the place of outright racism since the 1960s, and do not allow African Americans to have many choices about where they are able to live. This then causes the devalorization cycle of the few neighborhoods they are able to choose from, which is the downward cycle of the neighborhood that leads to redlining and abandonment, and eventually gentrification. Gentrification of a neighborhood occurs when the neighborhood has a high degree of abandonment, and then attracts an influx of investment and undergoes physical renovation and an increase in property market values. In many cases, the lower-income residents who occupied the neighborhood prior to its renovation can no longer afford properties there. This downward cycle leading to gentrification mainly occurs in large metropolitan areas in African American or racially mixed neighborhoods.

Read more about Housing Segregation:  History of Housing Discrimination, Segregation and Neighborhood Disinvestment, Relocation

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