Resources for Redressing Segregation

Data, toolkits, guidance, and more to support local actions to challenge racial segregation

In Just Action we discuss dozens of strategies local groups of organized residents can pursue to redress the segregation of their communities. We describe each strategy, policy change, or program, explain how it can contribute to challenging segregation, and give an example of a community successfully implementing it. But the format of the book doesn’t allow for providing readers with additional resources that could be useful in pursuing these policy changes locally or learning more about what groups in other areas are doing around the issue.

In this column, I hope to provide direction to those looking to learn more about some of the issues covered in Just Action. I include: sources for data and background information that can help inform local campaigns; inventories of where different strategies and policies have been implemented; and links to sites, organizations, and toolkits that provide guidance to localities and organizations looking to use a particular strategy. This list is by no means exhaustive. I may do another resource list in a future column as I become aware of more helpful resources. For now, here are some that I hope are useful, grouped by topic.

General information about racial disparities

• The Othering and Belonging Institute’s Racial Disparities Dashboard allows users to track progress and regress in national black-white disparities from 1970 to 2020 across 15 variables measuring critical life outcomes.

• The National Equity Atlas allows users to compare how their city or region is doing compared to other communities along 30 indicators of racial and economic equity.

Racially Restrictive Covenants

• The National Covenants Research Coalition’s site contains links to the coalition’s dozen member groups that are tracking and inventorying restrictive covenants in their respective cities.

Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing

• The National Fair Housing Alliance provides background on the Fair Housing Act’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing requirement as well as updates on implementation of Biden’s new AFFH rule.

Homeownership

• This report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies provides data on the racial homeownership gap by state.

• Down Payment Resource provides an inventory of over 2,000 down payment assistance programs across the country.

• The University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy provides data on property tax disparities for every metro region in the country.

Special Purpose Credit Programs

• The SPCP Toolkit provides lenders and advocates with resources and guidance for implementing Special Purpose Credit Programs, including examples of active SPCPs.

Housing Choice Vouchers / Section 8

• The Poverty & Race Research and Action Council (PRRAC) summarizes the state, local, and federal source of income discrimination statutes that protect voucher recipients from discrimination and provides a guide for crafting an effective source of income discrimination law.

• The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and PRRAC provide a guide to using Small Area Fair Market Rents to expand opportunities for voucher holders to access units in high opportunity areas, including a map showing the 24 regions that HUD requires to use the smaller area voucher payment standard.

• HUD’s Housing Mobility Toolkit for public housing authorities and their partners offers resources for implementing mobility programs that help voucher recipients move to high opportunity areas. 

Zoning reform

• The Othering & Belonging Institute’s Zoning Reform Tracker provides a map and database of municipal zoning reform efforts around the country.

Inclusionary Zoning

• The Grounded Solutions Network provides a website of resources to help communities learn about, design, and implement inclusionary zoning policies, including a map and database of the over 1,000 inclusionary housing programs around the country.

Community Land Trusts

• The Grounded Solutions Network provides a primer on community land trusts, as well as a guide for starting one.

• The Schumacher Center for A New Economics provides a directory of community land trusts in North America, including those focused on expanding affordable housing and those focused on land preservation, as well as a directory of regional land trust coalitions.

Challenging lending discrimination

• The National Fair Housing Alliance has a Redlining Toolkit to help advocates understand and analyze data related to redlining risk and to provide guidance for taking action to ensure communities have fair access to credit.

• The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) provides the Bank Branch Locator, an interactive dashboard to help advocates identify branch clusters and deserts in order to better understand how well banks are serving their communities.

• NCRC also produces a fair lending report that allows users to analyze all aspects of fair lending in their state, metro region, or county, including bank branch locations, mortgage originations by race and neighborhood, average interest rates and closing costs, and others.

State preemption

• While some resources in this list show where local governments are implementing promising policies, the Local Solutions Support Center provides a map illustrating which states preempt localities from enacting housing policies that promote equity and affordability. These include states that prohibit localities from: outlawing source of income discrimination, regulating short-term rentals, implementing inclusionary zoning, and passing rent regulation.