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: Proponents of exclusionary zoning cite declining property values as the primary reason to keep low-income people out of their neighborhoods. The research around property values is murky. On the one hand, research shows that land-use diversity actually increases property values. On the other hand, the same research shows that racial diversity tends to decrease them. Still, evidence about the impact of racial diversity on property values often reveals that these findings have been fueled by underlying and outdated fears. For decades, the Federal Housing Administration and National Association of Real Estate Boards included provisions in their code of ethics and underwriting manuals that explicitly described racial minorities as “ detrimental to property values in that neighborhood .” Unfortunately, if white sellers, renters, lenders, and buyers perceive minority status as detrimental to property values—as they have been conditioned—they will be less willing to pay to live in racially diverse neighborhoods, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of segregation. What Has Been Done To Stop Exclusionary Zoning? Fair housing advocates have long recognized that exclusionary zoning perpetuates patterns of racial and income-based segregation. In 1969, just one year after the Fair Housing Act was passed, then U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development George Romney attempted to outlaw exclusionary zoning with the Open Communities initiative.