2016 UAA Annual Conference

Fair housing advocates frequently criticize the placement of subsidized and affordable housing in disadvantaged neighborhoods. This is considered by such advocates as reinforcing patterns of segregation and concentrated poverty. Fair housing advocates are suspicious of such practices even when they are characterized as part of larger revitalization strategies. Some in the movement have even taken to calling community developers a “poverty housing industry.” This stance puts them at odds with community development practitioners who see affordable and better quality housing as an important need in disadvantaged neighborhoods, and as a legitimate policy objective in such neighborhoods. Although this tension has always been a part of affordable housing policy, the debate has heightened over the past 10 years. Several national summits have occurred to attempt to bring fair housing advocates and community development practitioners together to resolve these issues (to little avail). Several academic journal articles, blogs, on-line articles, and national media pieces have considered this question, as well. This colloquy brings together four experts on the issue. Our presentations will examine this debate and the various policy and normative elements that underpin the two arguments. We will describe and analyze the points of opposition and agreement. Finally, the two positions will be examined in light of changing demographic patterns in American cities, and the recent Supreme Court ruling on disparate impact, and recent HUD regulations related to Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing.