The Empty Promises of the Fair Housing Act
Today, the Fair Housing Act, passed in 1968, delivers an empty promise to black people and communities. Even with the commitment to fair access to homeownership, mortgages, and wealth accumulation, most people of color have not realized long-term property ownership. Currently, black homeownership is at 43.4%, the lowest in decades, while white homeownership is at 72.1% (Bahney, 2022). The Fair Housing Act was supposed to help undo the racist practices and laws that gave white people affordable homes and mortgages while prohibiting black people from owning property.
Because the Fair Housing Act did not deliver on its promise, the majority-white baby boomer generation now holds 53.2% of the wealth in the United States, or $59.96 trillion; this is ten times the wealth that millennials have, and twice the wealth that generation X has (Hicks, 2021). Baby boomers have grown wealthy and prospered from progressive policies such as fair wages, guaranteed pensions, reasonably priced college educations, and subsidized affordable housing and mortgages, which created their wealth. Yet, according to the Pew Research Center, these are the same policies that today they refuse to support for the younger generations because 46% of baby boomers lean conservatively, based on the percentage of registered voters (Sizelove, 2020).
The Fair Housing Act was passed seven days after the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr., who fought and advocated for fair and equitable housing. Its purpose was to expand on previous acts and prohibit the racist policies and practices that propped up white neighborhoods with the following: supportive infrastructure, quality housing, affordable mortgages, outstanding schools, community banks, parks, grocery stores, and other essential retail throughout the United States. But the Fair Housing Act did little to address these inequities in communities with its Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) directive. The AFFH directive requires that local and state governments invest in communities of color in a meaningful way to build black communities up to the level of their neighboring white communities. Unfortunately, regulations and rules meant to strengthen the AFFH provision happen under Democratic administrations, while under Republican administrations, they become weakened. Therefore, the AFFH provision stays in a rule-making limbo, making it unenforceable. Thus, the sad reality is that the Fair Housing Act’s AFFH provision does not hold community leaders and planners to account for their illegal investments in white communities and illegal lack of investments in black communities.
While the Fair Housing Act is a well-intended piece of legislation and should have created equal access to homeownership and comparable neighborhoods for black and white people, it never fully delivered on its promise to promote and further integration. Meanwhile, the AFFH directive does not hold elected local and state officials accountable for their investment decisions. The only way to keep local and state officials to account is through voters. This requires organizing within communities and selecting candidates who can win and are willing “to do the right thing.”
If your organization or community would like assistance with training, organizing, and advocating around the promise of the Fair Housing Act, please schedule a free consultation with K&J Strategic Solutions.
References
Bahney, A. (2022, February 25). The Black homeownership rate is now lower than it was a decade ago. Retrieved from CNN Business: https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/25/homes/us-black-homeownership-rate/index.html
Hicks, P. (2021). The Millennial vs Boomer Generational Wealth Gap. Retrieved from Trust & Will: https://trustandwill.com/learn/generational-wealth-gap
Sizelove, S. (2020, December 20). Understanding Baby Boomers in Politics. Retrieved from PoliticianCompare: https://www.politiciancompare.com/understanding-baby-boomers-in-politics/