American Apartheid: The Role of Government in Creating Housing Segregation
Saturday, January 29, 2005 at 10:13AM
TheSpook
The role of federal and state
government in creating and maintaining residential racial segregation
must be understood, without excuse, as a reality of American history.
On the federal level, the United States government reinforced
discriminatory norms through various public policies. The Federal
Housing Administration (FHA) adopted the practice of "red-lining," a
discriminatory rating system used by FHA to evaluate the risks
associated with loans made to borrowers in specific urban neighborhoods.[14]The
vast majority of the loans went to the two top categories of the rating
system, the highest of which included areas that were "new, homogenous,
and in demand in good times and bad."[15]The second highest category was
comprised of mostly stable areas that were still desirable. The third
category, and the level at which discriminatory "red-lining" began,
consisted of working class neighborhoods near black residences that
were "within such a low price or rent range as to attract an
undesirable element."[16]Black areas were placed in the fourth
cate gory. Mortgage funds were channeled away from fourth category
African American neighborhoods and were typically redirected from
communities that were located near a black settlement or an area
expected to contain black residences in the future.[17]As a result of these policies, the vast
majority of FHA mortgage loans went to borrowers in white middle-class
neighborhoods, and very few were awarded to black neighborhoods in
central cities.[18]Between 1930 and 1950, three out of
five homes purchased in the United States were financed by FHA, yet
less than two percent of the FHA loans were made to non-white home
buyers.[19]The FHA thus became the first federal agency to openly counsel and support segregation.[20] [MORE]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
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