Progress Illinois

Fair housing has suffered for too long as a largely ignored priority in America. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) continuously neglects its duty to affirmatively advance the cause. Many others dismiss the issue as historical.  And the movement itself has suffered from poor funding and organization throughout its history.

Nonetheless, promoting integration and reducing discrimination in housing is a crucial component to improving our metropolitan regions going forward.

Despite important victories that helped guarantee civil rights (including systemic changes in the lending and insurance fields), the first 40 years of fair housing advocacy has almost completely failed at improving the integration of metropolitan communities. Multiple metrics show that most communities throughout the United States continue to suffer from high segregation. While demographic changes occur across many regions, what we often see is short-term integration swiftly replaced by re-segregation. Common examples include the entry of white residents into gentrifying urban neighborhoods and increases in minority populations in suburban municipalities. In the vast majority of these cases, the initial increase in diversity is followed by re-segregation due to displacement or flight.

This continual, shifting dynamic is due in part to the fact that in 1968, when the Fair Housing Act passed, American cities were already segregated in a way that privileged white residents over people of color in nearly every quality of life measurement. Moreover, the most significant changes did not begin to manifest until the 1980s.

The federal government and the fair housing community have been most successful in responding to acts of discrimination. But this reactive strategy has failed to provide either models of inclusion or leadership on affirmative measures. Part of this approach results from the language of the Fair Housing Act. However, the failure to engage in significant pro-integrative programs is also due to a lack of imagination and innovation in fair housing advocacy both from HUD and the movement itself.

So what does "pro-integrative" mean? Essentially, these programs inform housing seekers of their rights and opportunities from the beginning of their search process rather than after housing providers have denied them or discouraged them from quality housing options. This structural approach aims to create and sustain diverse, integrated communities characterized by inclusion and harmony.  It also seeks to create environments that minimize discrimination and expand housing choices. 

The best known of these initiatives are located in the Chicago region – specifically, the voucher-oriented Gautreaux program and the market-oriented Oak Park Regional Housing Center.  Other Chicago-area organizations continue to foster innovation on this issue.  For instance, a new start-up organization called MoveSmart.org aims to expand housing choices in the region by reducing the knowledge gaps that perpetuate segregation. Similar programs exist in other areas of the country, such as the Inclusive Communities Project in the Dallas/Fort Worth region, the Heights Community Congress in Cleveland's southeast suburbs, the Maplewood/South Orange Community Coalition in New Jersey.

By prioritizing affirmative, pro-integrative measures, the incoming Obama administration could add a sorely missing component to fulfilling the spirit of the Fair Housing Act. Affirmative policies will better guarantee the rights afforded all Americans in the Fair Housing Act. Moreover, these policies will foster a structure of equal opportunity in our metropolitan regions that will help ameliorate a wide array of urban problems.

The time is now to promote a pro-integrative fair housing model that change the structure of our cities and suburbs to the benefit of people of all races and protected classes.

Rob Breymaier is the executive director of the Oak Park Regional Housing Center.