User:GracesEditing/Racial inequality in the United States

Housing segregation in the United States is the practice of denying African American or other minority groups equal access to housing through the process of misinformation, denial of realty and financing services, and racial steering. Housing policy in the United States has influenced housing segregation trends throughout history. Key legislation include the National Housing Act of 1934, the GI Bill, and the Fair Housing Act. Factors such as socioeconomic status, spatial assimilation, and immigration contribute to perpetuating housing segregation. The effects of housing segregation include relocation, unequal living standards, and poverty. However, there have been initiatives to combat housing segregation, such as the Section 8 housing program.

Racial residential segregation doubled from 1880 to 1940. Southern urban areas were the most segregated. Segregation was highly correlated with lynchings of African-Americans. Segregation adversely affected both black and white homeownership rates, as well as caused higher crime rates. Areas with housing segregation had worse health outcomes for both whites and Blacks. Residential segregation accounts for a substantial share of the Black-white gap in birth weight. Segregation reduced upward economic mobility.

White communities are more likely to have strict land use regulations (and whites are more likely to support those regulations). Strict land use regulations are an important driver of housing segregation along racial lines in the United States.

'''Zoning laws in the United States are established by local governments as a set of regulations with the goal to control the use of land and the aspects of physical development of properties. These regulations dictate how land and buildings can be used and what they can look like in relation to setback requirements, height limits, and parking and access. These laws have a strong impact on racial inequality within housing in the United States. Through processes such as redlining, zoning for segregation, and zoning as a tool for gentrification, zoning laws have historically reflected racial ideologies in urban planning within the United States.'''

'''Gentrification is a process where longtime residents, who are often people of color, are priced out of the neighborhood as it is developed and geared towards middle-class white people. With this, zoning laws have the power to either encourage or limit the types of development that contribute to the gentrification of these areas.'''