Advancing Housing Equity: A Toolkit for Local Practitioners
December 9, 2024
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Despite years of advocacy and policy attention, significant inequalities in housing still persist. A well-documented history of racist housing practices, as well as ongoing forms of discrimination, has led to racial gaps in housing stability and homeownership, segregated neighborhoods, and unequal access to well-resourced communities. In addition to race and ethnicity, housing disparities exist across diverse dimensions, including disability status, age, national origin, sexual orientation and gender identity, and income. These factors often overlap in people’s lives, compounding challenges and creating unique barriers for residents with intersecting identities.
The nature and magnitude of housing disparities can vary depending on local contexts. Therefore, local practitioners should address these challenges with equity strategies informed by data analysis and a targeted suite of policy approaches. This toolkit compiles resources to help city officials advance equity throughout the entire housing policy process.
Reflect
Exclusionary and discriminatory housing policies have shaped America’s cities for decades. While some interventions have begun to address these policies, inequalities in housing persist to this day. The resources below can help you identify how your city's social, legal, and historical contexts have influenced housing disparities.
- Reckoning With the History of Housing Segregation
In a panel hosted by the Housing Solutions Lab (“the Lab”), community leaders from four cities around the U.S. share insights on how their local governments can learn from their past planning mistakes to promote a more equitable future. - The Dream Revisited: Series
This project from the NYU Furman Center presents thoughtful debates on issues related to racial and economic segregation in neighborhoods and schools. - Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America
Explore the impact of redlining on housing and health outcomes in your community through interactive maps provided by the University of Richmond. - “Stop AIDS Evictions!”: Discrimination, Rent Regulation, and New York City’s Housing Crisis (1985–1988)
This article from Maggie Schreiner at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center synthesizes accounts of LGBTQ+ housing discrimination and eviction at the height of the AIDS epidemic.
Seminal works on housing inequality
- Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940-1960 by Arnold R. Hirsch
This book examines how postwar housing and redevelopment policies reinforced racial divisions in Chicago’s neighborhoods. - Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States by Kenneth T. Jackson
This book traces the cultural, economic, and political factors that drove the growth of suburbs and reshaped American life. - American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass by Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton
This book highlights how segregation perpetuates inequality and exclusion for Black Americans. - The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
This book examines how government policies at all levels actively enforced racial segregation in housing throughout the 20th century. - The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy by William Julius Wilson
This book explores how economic shifts and policy decisions have concentrated poverty and deepened inequality in urban areas.
Analyze
Data can help provide a shared understanding of the barriers faced by different communities within each city and establish a starting point to track improvements. These resources suggest ways cities can use data to understand the context of inequity in their community.
- Harnessing Data to Uncover Local Housing Inequities – New from the Lab
Learn how to utilize multiple data sources to gain a more comprehensive view of existing local disparities in this brief from the Lab. - Recent Homeownership Trends Among Households of Color
Learn how homeownership rates are changing among households of color in your community in this blog post from the Lab. - Resources to Elevate Data for Equity
This resource from the Urban Institute provides tools and guides for strengthening community data capacity and integrating data into equity work.
Examples
Oakland, CA
In 2016, the City of Oakland became one of the first cities in the nation to create an agency aimed at eliminating local causes of racial disparities and improving racial equity across the city. Those efforts eventually led to the release of Oakland’s Equity Indicators, the city’s first equity review, which is now being used to help guide and inform the city’s policies.
- How the City of Oakland Is Using a Data-Driven Approach to Address Racial Equity – Local Housing Solutions
- Embedding Equity in Oakland’s Housing Strategies
Seattle, WA
Seattle’s Displacement Risk Index shows areas within the city where people of color, low-income residents, renters, and other communities may be at risk of displacement. The map informed the growth strategy pursued in the city’s update of its comprehensive plan.
Engage
Community input is critical at all steps of the policy-making process to ensure that new strategies are responsive to the needs of community members. Reference the resources below for guidance on how to gather input from communities traditionally underrepresented in housing policy.
- Engaging the Community in the Development of a Local Housing Strategy – Coming soon from the Lab
Access Local Housing Solutions’ range of materials curated to help local leaders address common barriers to equitable engagement. - Assessing Community Needs and Resources
This collection of resources from the University of Kansas’ Community Tool Box provides tools for cities to gather input from community members. - Community Engagement Toolkit: Building Purpose and Participation
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s toolkit guides cities through the process of planning and implementing a community engagement strategy.
Examples
Arlington, TX
The Arlington Unity Council is a racial equity task force composed of city staff and community members. Following seven months of research, the Unity Council put forth 57 program and policy recommendations covering strategies to address economic disparities, education and workforce training, housing, health and wellness, and police and criminal justice.
Act
Once cities achieve a holistic understanding of their strengths, persisting needs, and community priorities, they can create comprehensive strategies to respond to these issues. Below, we feature resources that can help cities craft a range of policies and programs to remedy local inequities.
- Taking the Next Steps to Address Past Planning Harms
This resource from the Lab shares examples of strategies that cities across the country are using to confront and remedy past planning decisions that have fueled persistent segregation and inequality. - Reducing Housing Discrimination
View the Lab’s roundup of how policy tools can be used to reduce housing discrimination. - Strengthening the Resources and Opportunities in High-poverty Neighborhoods
Learn about the several approaches that jurisdictions are using to address the concentration of poverty in this brief from the Lab. - Addressing Segregation by Income, Race, and Ethnicity
This brief from the Lab provides background information on current trends in U.S. segregation and outlines what cities, towns, and counties can do to help address these inequities. - Source of Income Laws
This brief from the Lab explores how localities can act to prohibit discrimination against renters and home buyers based on the source of their income. - Meeting the Housing and Services Needs of Older Adults and People with Disabilities
Reference this policy toolkit from the Lab to help identify ways to meet the housing and services needs of older adults and people with disabilities, including renters and homeowners. - Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing
Learn about different ways that cities are pursuing the charge to affirmatively further fair housing through placed-based and mobility-based strategies in this brief from the Lab. - Ensuring Equity in Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Efforts
This brief from the Lab discusses key steps and resources localities can use to promote more equitable planning for disaster preparedness and recovery. - Bridging Racial Homeownership Gaps
This brief from the Lab introduces policies that local jurisdictions can use to increase net homeownership among households of color. - Preservation of Dedicated Affordable Housing
This page highlights several Lab resources that can help cities establish and maintain access to dedicated affordable housing. - Equity in Zoning Policy Guide
The American Planning Association identifies various zoning reforms that cities can pursue to address housing disparities. - Advancing Racial Equity in Housing, Land, and Development Toolkit
This toolkit from the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) is designed for local housing, planning, and community development agencies to learn about racial equity concepts and how to apply them to housing and land use contexts. - Policy Primers for Housing Equity
Reference these five policy primers from ChangeLab Solutions on housing strategies that incorporate equity. - How to Embed Racial Equity into Zoning Code Reform
This brief from the Urban Institute highlights anti-displacement policies in zoning reforms as a means of advancing housing equity.
Examples
Minneapolis, MN
Minneapolis is well-known as the first large American city to eliminate single-family zoning through an update to its comprehensive plan, Minneapolis 2040. While persisting height limits and regulations on floor-area ratios have stifled duplex and triplex construction in the city, researchers point to the successes of other aspects of the plan. By rezoning for housing density along commercial corridors, instituting height minimums in high-density areas, and eliminating minimum parking requirements, the city saw a 12 percent increase in its housing stock from 2017 to 2022, largely due to the construction of large apartment buildings. This increase in housing construction has helped keep rent growth low in Minneapolis, with rents increasing by only 1 percent during that time, compared to a 14 percent rise across the rest of Minnesota. The changes implemented by Minneapolis 2040 have increased the supply of affordable housing citywide and encouraged the development of resource-rich, mixed-income neighborhoods of opportunity.
- Minneapolis 2040 Plan
- Minneapolis Land Use Reforms Offer a Blueprint for Housing Affordability, The Pew Charitable Trusts
Seattle, WA
The Seattle “Grand Bargain” was an agreement negotiated among city officials, private developers, and affordable housing advocates to implement an inclusionary zoning and linkage fee program in upzoned neighborhoods throughout the city. Its cornerstone proposal is the Mandatory Housing Affordability program, which requires the inclusion of rent-restricted units for low-income households in new development, but only within neighborhoods upzoned for increased density.
Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia’s Restore Repair Renew Loan program provides low-interest home repair loans to low- and moderate-income homeowners. The program seeks to rectify historical disinvestment in communities of color by increasing access to loan products that can help preserve housing quality and value.
Additional case studies
- These case studies explore policy options to support older adults’ ability to age in place through smaller housing units, age-friendly housing features, and amenities: Aging in Place Strategies from Boston, MA; Burlington, VT; and Guilford County, NC – Local Housing Solutions
- These case studies highlight the strategies three cities use to meet the federal requirement to address historic patterns of segregation: Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Strategies from North Texas; Pittsburgh, PA; and Buffalo, NY
Evaluate
Regular monitoring and evaluation is critical for assessing the impact of policies and programs. The resources below provide guidance for cities to evaluate progress.
- Using Data to Measure Progress on Housing Equity Goals – New from the Lab
Learn how data tools can provide essential support in evaluating the efficacy and sustainability of interventions in this brief from the Lab. - Evaluating Inclusionary Zoning Policies
This brief from the Lab provides localities implementing inclusionary zoning the tools to assess the impact of their policy on key outcomes. - How Evaluation Can Support Housing Justice and Community Change
This podcast from Mathematica discusses how evaluation can advance equitable housing and community development. - A Measurement Framework for Racial Equity in Homeless Response Systems
Reference this framework from Community Solutions to understand how measurement and evaluation can guide racial equity goals, particularly in homeless response systems.
Examples
California
The cities of Yorba Linda, Santa Monica, and Inglewood use a metric called the Fair Housing Land Use Score to assess the impact of housing subsidies and land use reform in their housing planning. This metric allows cities to evaluate how effective changes in policy are in advancing fair housing goals.