Perspectives on Fair Housing: An Overview

Fair housing is central to the moral and economic foundation and future of American society. The Fair Housing Act—passed more than 50 years ago—prohibited discrimination in the sale, rent, and financing of housing based on race, religion, and national origin. But, while necessary, the Act alone is insufficient to stop discrimination and undo the decades of discriminatory land, housing, and other policies that have ingrained racial inequality into the nation’s housing markets.

Necessary but insufficient—this is a theme that emerged from a recent book, Perspectives on Fair Housing, that pulled together experts from across disciplines to provide historical, sociological, economic, and legal perspectives on the critical and continuing problem of housing discrimination and to offer a way forward. Co-edited by Penn Provost Wendell Pritchett, James S. Riepe Presidential Professor, and Penn IUR Co-Director Susan Wachter, Albert Sussman Professor of Real Estate and Professor of Finance, The Wharton School, and me, Penn Press published it October 2020 in Penn IUR’s City in the 21st Century series.

A myriad of evidence throughout the book’s chapters supports the assertion that the Act is the most important tool for addressing discrimination in housing markets, but it is not enough. Nestor M. Davidson, Albert A. Walsh Professor of Real Estate, Land Use and Property Law at Fordham University, and Eduardo M. Peñalver, Allan R. Tessler Dean and Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, demonstrate that the Act is defined by both its legal significance as well as its legal limitations. And, after reading the chapter that focuses on just one segment of the history of unfair housing leading up to the passage of the Fair Housing Act, written by Francesca Russello Ammon, Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning and Historic Preservation at the Weitzman School of Design, and Wendell Pritchett, it should be no surprise that the Act was only a starting point.

But little has been done to advance the U.S. past that starting point. In fact, Justin P. Steil, Associate Professor of Law and Urban Planning at MIT, and Camille Z. Charles, Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology, Africana Studies & Education in the Penn School of Arts and Sciences, highlight in their chapter the ways racial segregation has reproduced socioeconomic inequality and is often reinforeced by whites’ preferences for living in predominately white neighborhoods. Akira Drake Rodriguez, Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning in the Weitzman School of Design, and Rand Quinn, Associate Professor in the Teaching, Learning, and Leadership Division of Penn’s Graduate School of Education, show how such systems of exclusion determine school access and who benefits from school investments.

And, as Amy Hillier, Associate Professor, School of Social Policy & Practice and Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning in the Weitzman School of Design, and Devin Michelle Bunten, Edward H. and Joyce Linde Assistant Professor of Urban Economics and Housing at MIT, continue, these exclusionary systems also furthered discrimination based on gender and sexual identity. As a result, these unfair housing practices materialize and compound in the personal and economic wellbeing of individuals of color; collectively they have aggregate effects on the economic wellbeing of whole communities, regions, and the macro-economy, as Raphael Bostic, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and I argue in our chapter.

So where does this leave us? In a moment where the same communities of color that were discriminated against are now being disproportionally ravaged by both the economic and health consequences of COVID-19, the authors offer policy solutions. One idea by Steil and Charles focuses on the need to re-establish and enhance the Obama administration’s efforts to affirmatively furthering fair housing. Another idea Bostic and I discuss is providing housing counseling and housing-search support. Multiple authors throughout the book discuss the need to identify and address the rules and regulations that enshrine discrimination and segregation in housing markets, one of which is local zoning regulations that prohibit development and limit neighborhood access and who benefits from public and private investments.

One clear theme emerged from all of the book’s policy ideas: the United States cannot rely on passive approaches to addressing fair housing. Rather, leaders need to treat fair housing as central to every domestic policy issue—its place there is not a matter of perspective.

In conjunction with the book’s publication, Penn IUR hosted a six-part webinar series in October that is now available on Penn IUR’s website. Borrowing its structure from the book, each event in the series focused on one aspect of fair housing: history, sociology, economics, education, law, and gender. The events featured contributors to the book as well as other experts on fair housing and highlighted some of the key debates around many of the solutions to fair housing proposed in the book.

Vincent Reina is Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning, Weitzman School of Design, a Penn IUR Faculty Fellow, and a co-editor, with Penn Provost Wendell Pritchett and Penn IUR Co-Director Susan Wachter, of Perspectives on Fair Housing.