Assisted Housing and Residential Segregation: The Role of Race and Ethnicity in the Siting of Assisted Housing Developments

Abstract Historically, public and other federally assisted housing developments have contributed to urban racial segregation. In the 1970s, however, HUD adopted regulations that discouraged the location of assisted housing developments in areas with high percentages of minority households. This article looks at the role of race, ethnicity, and poverty in the siting of five types of assisted housing during the 1980s. HUD data are combined with census data to identify the characteristics of the tracts that received public and assisted housing. Although the value of owner-occupied units in tracts was the strongest predictor of the placement of most types of assisted housing, the results indicate that race and ethnicity still mattered. The percentage of African Americans in a neighborhood was a relatively strong predictor of the siting of Low Income Housing Tax Credit developments, and the combination of African American and Hispanic households in tracts was a relatively strong predictor of the siting of both public family and other HUD family housing developments. In addition, four of the five types of housing considered were more likely to be placed in tracts with relatively high proportions of poor households.