The Changing Geography of Housing Segregation

The geography of racial segregation is changing in U.S. cities, according to research by Luisa Godinez-Puig and Sharon Cornelissen for the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. “As gentrification and housing unaffordability price lower-income residents out of major cities, we see new racial inequalities emerging on the metropolitan fringe,” they write. Two articles expand on their findings in Atlanta and Boston.

In Atlanta, the creation of new cities, which often occurs in affluent white communities, “can have large impacts on the unincorporated areas they leave behind, which are often communities of color. Indeed, by detaching themselves from county governance, new cities take resources away from the common pool of unincorporated areas and can significantly hurt the economic development of these communities.” Godinez-Puig notes that some predominantly Black communities have also incorporated, in part as a response to other new cities, but that the effects of their incorporation is unclear.

In Boston, the rapidly rising costs of housing are pushing Black families farther out of the city center as “unequal housing choices shape new locations of segregation across metropolitan Boston.” In 2020, the city was ranked 11th most segregated of the top 50 U.S. metros, resulting in disparities in economic and educational opportunities and access to healthcare and jobs. The article asserts that state governments can redress these disparities through preemption laws that promote affordable housing and eliminate exclusionary zoning and a stronger commitment to Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing and enforcement of the Fair Housing Act.