Equal opportunity in housing means the ability to choose one’s place of residence according to the same rules as everyone else. The denial of this freedom of choice on racial or other grounds not only violates constitutional rights; it produces destructive social tensions which alter the physical shape of- the Region, with negative repercussions on the economy, on the environment and on public costs. Therefore, equal opportunity in the choice of housing is a legitimate concern of regional planning. This study, in three parts, seeks to provide an information base for dealing with the issue on a regional scale.
The first part seeks to measure the extent to which blacks -- the dominant racial minority -- are segregated from the ‘rest of the population’ in the Region’s housing. This segregation is traditionally considered to have several major causes. It is voluntary to some extent, analogous to the grouping of ethnic minorities in ethnic neighborhoods. The extent of this voluntary grouping is difficult to measure, but opinion polls typically suggest that fewer than one- fifth of the residents of segregated black areas prefer to live in segregated black areas. The other cause is the inability of black, households to afford housing in predominantly white areas. This dimension is quantified here: only about six percent of the racial segregation in the Region’s housing is due to income. Given’ their present incomes, blacks could live in large areas of- the Region where they presently do not; this does indicate the presence of discrimination barriers to the free choice of housing.
Discrimination and what is being done about it is the subject of the second part’ of the study. It seeks to provide ‘some quantitative indicators of discriminatory housing practices in the Region and then describes the steps being taken by private, loc al, state, and federal agencies to prevent them, providing some measures of the scope of this effort.
The third part of the study scales the amount of buildable vacant land in the closer- in portions of the Region, where medium- density moderate- cost new housing could be provided. In contrast to the major opportunities for relieving racial segregation in the existing housing stock, the contribution that can be made by new housing is small, because the annual increment of new housing even in good years is small compared to the existing stock. Still, new housing can be important because it can offer new choices of location, and because an expanding housing supply reduces pressures in the housing market which contribute to discrimination.