Title: Systemic Inequality: Displacement, Exclusion, and Segregation - National Association of Real Estate Brokers
Headings: Systemic Inequality: Displacement, Exclusion, and Segregation
Systemic Inequality: Displacement, Exclusion, and Segregation
Introduction and summary
American public policy systematically removes people of color from their homes and communities
Displaced centuries ago, Native American communities continue to face disparities
Centuries of displacement have destabilized Black communities and undermined their access to opportunity
Federal, state, and local policies have fortified housing discrimination
Exclusion from federal homeownership programs undermined Black families’ wealth accumulation in the 20th century
Lawmakers have abdicated their responsibility to enact and fully enforce civil rights protections
Racial segregation is the direct result of intentional government policy, not individual choice
Conclusion

Content: They also constructed new highway systems—often through communities of color—to ensure access to job opportunities in urban centers for primarily white commuters. Over time, however, changing tastes and growing displeasure with congested roadways have resulted in middle-class and wealthy white households’ relocation to cities. As lawmakers rush to redevelop previously neglected urban neighborhoods, many of the same communities of color that were denied access to suburban homeownership and displaced by highway projects are again being forced from their homes to make room. Indeed, although lawmakers could construct more affordable housing units and create programs to insulate longtime city residents from the disruptive effects of gentrification, many appear to draw heavily from the ideology of manifest destiny—that white settlement and expansion are inevitable—in their responses to such rapid redevelopment. Merriam-Webster defines gentrification as “the process of repairing and rebuilding homes and businesses in a deteriorating area … accompanied by an influx of middle-class or affluent people and that often results in the displacement of earlier, usually poorer residents.” Over the past 50 years, this process, which sometimes involves government investment, has taken root in dozens of cities across the country. Increasing demand for housing, along with reduced levels of housing production, has contributed to staggering increases in rental and purchase prices in urban areas across the United States. While some experts cite the economic benefits of gentrification, many recognize its role in exacerbating racial inequality, as well as in the suburbanization of poverty as low-income people are forced to relocate from cities to the areas outside them. Nowhere are the effects of gentrification more noticeable than the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. Between 1970 and 2015, Black residents declined from 71 percent of the city’s population to just 48 percent. The city’s white population increased by 25 percent during the same period.