Title: Understanding Exclusionary Zoning and Its Impact on Concentrated Poverty
Headings: Understanding Exclusionary Zoning and Its Impact on Concentrated Poverty
Understanding Exclusionary Zoning and Its Impact on Concentrated Poverty
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Where Did Exclusionary Zoning Come From?
What Does Exclusionary Zoning Look Like?
What Are the Impacts of Exclusionary Zoning?
What Are Perceived Justifications for Exclusionary Zoning?
What Has Been Done To Stop Exclusionary Zoning?
Elliott Anne Rigsby, Contributor

Content: Together, these requirements make it difficult to build multi-family rental units that would allow lower-income residents to live in wealthy suburban developments with access to quality schools and employment. In addition, large lot size requirements reduce the supply of available land, drive up housing costs, and further keep out low-income families. Recently, use of exclusionary zoning has expanded into the urban core as wealthy and largely white families move back into cities. Within cities, policies like building height limits and school district lines increase property values and force low-income families into areas of concentrated poverty. Still, the effects of urban exclusionary zoning pale in comparison to the massive movement to the suburbs since the ’70s. What Are the Impacts of Exclusionary Zoning? Exclusionary zoning promotes income segregation by creating areas of concentrated poverty and concentrated wealth. As Century Foundation fellow Paul Jargowsky explains in his report “ Architecture of Segregation ,” the prevalence of concentrated poverty has increased since the turn of the century, and its effects are detrimental. In 2000, 10.3 percent of the poor lived in high-poverty neighborhoods. By 2013, this proportion increased to 14.4 percent.