“Housing is a right in America,” President Biden said last month as he signed an executive order promising to address racial discrimination and inequality in housing. On Tuesday, the administration announced an extension of the federal foreclosure moratorium through the end of June.

While this temporary measure is a necessary Band-Aid on a gaping economic wound, housing is not yet a right in this country — far from it. Mr. Biden’s emphasis on redressing racial inequity in housing provides a welcome contrast, though, to the long history of the federal government’s housing policies, which created barriers to safe, affordable housing in all 50 states, especially for communities of color.

Using data collected between 2013 and 2015 from Twitter — where millions of urban Americans leave behind valuable clues about where they eat lunch, work out and socialize each time they post a tweet — Candipan and her colleagues developed what they called a Segregated Mobility Index, or SMI, for each of 50 cities in the U.S. Candipan explained that each city scored somewhere between 0 and 1 on the SMI. If a city were to score 0, it would indicate total interconnectedness, with residents regularly visiting neighborhoods that don’t resemble the racial and ethnic composition of their own with a frequency that corresponds with the diversity of the city. If a city were to score 1, it would indicate total racial segregation, with residents failing to visit any neighborhood that doesn’t resemble the racial makeup of their own.

“Get your son out of this school.”

That’s the message Yanira Rios received seven years ago from her son’s kindergarten teacher shortly after moving to Bridgeport, the only community in the region where she could afford an apartment. Her son had learned to read in preschool before leaving Shelton, and now Rios was being told that his teacher needed to focus on his classmates, who were far behind him academically.

“It was so discouraging to have a teacher beg you, ‘You have to figure it out. You have to get your kid out of here, because at the end of the year he’s going to be behind,'” said Rios.

Segregation Is Preventable. Congress Just Isn’t Trying.
Again and again, federal efforts to promote integration have been whittled down almost to nothing.

The Struggle to Find Affordable Housing in Hartford

Kenneth Best, UConn Communications, April 17, 2019, Available Here.

Not in your front yard: Why 'For Sale' signs are banned in Oak Park, Steven Jackson, Oak Park, April 2, 2019, available here

Air Pollution Disproportionately Impacts Minorities, According To A Daunting New Study, Sarah Friedmann, Bustle, March 12, 2019, available here

A Major Chicago Public Housing Lawsuit Is Wrapping Up. The Segregation It Fought Against Lives On., Sophie Kasakove, Pacific Standard, February 28, 2019, available here

See How Landlords Pack Section 8 Renters Into Poorer Neighborhoods, Kriston Capps, CityLab, January 9, 2019, available here

Housing vouchers mostly move families into impoverished neighborhoods, even when better apartments exist elsewhere, Tracy Jan, Washington Post, January 3, 2019, available here