Opinion | America’s Federally Financed Ghettos - The New York Times:
The federal government's policies favored one-race neighborhoods for decades. The racial segregation we see around us today is the intended result of public policies and private actions.
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Here’s what’s left out of this NYT opinion. Association-governed communities have contributed to, perpetuated segregation.
First, we have discrimination by restrictive covenants. And selective enforcement. And virtually no regulatory oversight, little to no judicial due process, and state laws that are skewed against the housing consumer.
Second, we have older, run-down homeowners, condominium, and price-controlled cooperative associations that have morphed into de facto low-rent districts (ghettos), poorly managed and barely maintained by a band of irresponsible landlord-owners. Sometimes the larger community ASSUMES these are public rental housing projects or “section 8” housing projects. Technically, they are private, association-governed corporations, “affordable housing” that has more or less replaced public housing.
Third, we have federally-funded grants and tax incentives for developers to build or redevelop “affordable housing” of relatively low quality, often poorly-sited on a former landfill, in a flood plain, near industrial environmental hazards, practically on top of an interstate highway, etc. Much of the housing is for rent, but some of it is for sale. Buyers of these “affordable” homes receive questionable mortgage terms.
Fourth, we have rent-to-own schemes. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/04/rent-to-own-redlining/557588/ Unfortunately, some people are so desperate for control over their own housing that they fall into this trap.
Fifth, where developers are required to set aside a handful of affordable condo units in urban locations, we have “poor doors,” separate lobbies and elevators, and no access for the “affordable” dwellers to the common amenities. We expect lower-income and working class people to somehow blend in and afford to live in wealthy enclave neighborhoods, where they cannot afford to buy expensive clothing and jewerly, or to dine in upscale bistros or cafes. In some ways, this is the opposite extreme of herding the poor like cattle into run down high rises. How about some balance to encourage integration?
Sixth, and related to number five, we have some ethnic groups that actually prefer to create their own insulated association-governed community enclaves - sometimes to the point where the association’s restrictions and rules discourage outsiders. Such as one predominantly Orthodox Jewish condo board in NJ, enacting pool rules that prohibit males and females from swimming in the pool together, with the exception of the Sabbath, when non-Orthodox residents can mix. Or how about the Michigan summer lake HOA that wants to restrict ownership to Christians that are active members of a church? (Both profiled on my website)
Here’s one NY HOA accused of selling only to Jewish buyers https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/04/rent-to-own-redlining/557588/
And another one in MD, accused of targeting buyers of one particular Muslim sect. https://independentamericancommunities.com/2017/10/27/is-joppatowne-md-new-home-community-violating-fair-housing-act/
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