ABSTRACT
The link between access to decent housing and the attainment of economic and social mobility has been known for decades. Access to quality schools, good jobs, healthy and safe environments, supportive social networks, and accumulation of housing wealth are all influenced by the ability to secure housing in neighborhoods of opportunity and choice (Katz, 2004). Denial of access to housing is arguably the single most powerful tool to undermine and marginalize the upward mobility of people. A series of mechanisms directly intended to restrict the housing choice of minority households, beginning in the late 1800s and continuing throughout most of the twentieth century, largely explain the severe wealth disparities in America by race/ ethnicity. They also largely explain the seemingly intractable concentrated poverty faced by a disproportionate share of African American, Latino, and Native American populations. Failure to honestly acknowledge and address this unfortunate, but nevertheless real, past, and its consequences, will increasingly present major economic and social challenges for the nation’s future.
