Does Affordable Housing Perpetuate Racial Segregation?
11th July 2015
The Anti-Discrimination Center, a Manhattan-based non-profit, filed a lawsuit in federal court this week, claiming that New York City’s affordable housing program perpetuates “entrenched segregation.”
The lawsuit takes issue with a common policy in which affordable housing developers set aside 50 percent of the apartments in a new development for prospective tenants already living in the community district. This means access is “effectively prioritized for white residents” who already reside in neighborhoods with the best schools and amenities and “limited for African-American and Latino New Yorkers who do not,” according to the lawsuit.
One of the chief complaints against ‘gentrification’ is that it pushes out existing residents. This has sparked violent confrontations in, for example, San Francisco.