Outlaw Exclusionary Zoning
The availability of affordable housing is the key to reducing concentrated poverty. But because of decades of entrenched local exclusionary zoning ordinances, lower-income people and racial minorities have been kept out of wealthy and middle-class neighborhoods across the country. This prevents these individuals from equal access to adequate education, employment and healthcare.1 Exclusionary zoning ordinances are income segregation that has resulted in one in four of the black poor living in a neighborhood of extreme poverty, compared to one in thirteen of the white poor.2 Federal, state and local policymakers and courts should marshal the courage to combat and outlaw exclusionary zoning laws so affordable housing and equal access and opportunity can be shared by all.