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This chapter presents a counter-argument to the integration imperative. The chapter offers critiques of the integration argument and presents an argument in favour of affordable housing and community development in low-income communities of color. The chapter articulates how integration falls short in altering the political dynamics and structural inequalities of race. In contrast, community development is presented as a policy alternative that provides benefits to disadvantaged communities (in terms of better housing and jobs, for example) and constitutes a better alternative for addressing more fundamental questions of racial justice.

Chapter 5 explores the role of Housing First and then the broader housing market, particularly social housing, in explaining the variations in outcomes described in previous chapters. The chapter argues that the scale of secure affordable housing and the targeting of those experiencing homelessness are crucial in reducing homelessness. The Irish do worse in this regard despite expending considerable amounts of public funding on the provision of social housing. This is because it largely relies on private providers to provide housing, with the gap between ability to pay and market rents made up by a housing benefit payment. Denmark retains a considerable stock of public social housing, but is facing tight housing markets in its major urban areas, particularly Copenhagen, where homelessness in concentrated. In Finland, the steady provision of secure affordable housing, coupled with a housing-led/focused response to homelessness have allowed for the provision of a significant number of secure tenancies for households experiencing homelessness.

Chapter 11 discusses subsidies to the supply of rental housing. The traditional approach has been to subsidise first local authorities and then housing associations to produce additional social housing. Later the emphasis shifted to introducing private finance and recycling past subsidy to provide a range of affordable housing products. Additionally, the planning system was modified to make it possible to require the provision of affordable housing on residential development sites. Allocation principles have also changed, moving away from accommodating lower-income working households to emphasising provision for vulnerable households of all types. Here we examine the impact of changing financing mechanisms on the capacity to add to the housing stock; the types of provision; and the rents that are charged across the country. We also consider the impact of Right to Buy and other approaches to transferring accommodation between tenures. Finally, we look to comparable international experience.

This chapter provides an overview of two different ways of working towards racial justice and regional equity. The two approaches are integration efforts on the one hand and community development efforts on the other. The tension between these two approaches is described as a conflict among groups that are generally allied on issues of social justice. It is argued that this debate is a tension within a race-conscious policy alliance, and represents a disagreement about how best to achieve the common goal of racial equity.

Chapter 10 returns to the question of increasing private housing construction. In addition to the restrictions on construction arising from land use planning policies, other constraints arise from the behavioural responses and incentives structures facing local authorities, builders and landowners. Output is, therefore, influenced by the structure of the housebuilding industry, notably the business model of larger speculative builders; the skills base and productivity; and the extent to which demand is there to maintain increased output levels. The chapter then discusses possible models for speeding up development, including off-plan sales by private developers; greater diversity of housing types and tenures; and the increasing incentives to housing associations to develop market housing. In addition, the chapter considers attempts to limit the negative impacts of planning controls through permitted development and planning in principle as well as the core role of planning obligations in providing affordable housing and local infrastructure.

Examines prospects, implications and final comparisons. Considers the challenges of neighborhood activism in Northeast LA as an older cadre of artists and activists makes way for a new generation of movement leaders who confront a shifting racial and socioeconomic landscape in the transition from suburbanization and white flight to gentrification and white return. Attention to conflicts in the Latino/a experience in Boyle Heights and Northeast L.A. and the power of processions and rituals to cope with the social trauma of eviction and displacement. The struggle to save imperiled cultural landmarks and the promise of new cultural festivals and music scenes is addressed. NELA is viewed as an illustration of going “back to the future” in regional transit policy turns away from the failures of the postwar auto-centered metropolis towards smart growth and green alternatives. Urban policy solutions are considered with respect to transit oriented development, affordable housing development and supporting tenants’ rights and programs for the homeless. Reflections are given on meanings of taking back the boulevard. The significance of looking at the neighborhood scale in metropolitan change is addressed. Addresses the book’s contribution to interpretive, public and critical sociology.

This chapter begins with urban renewal, which destroyed the entire quadrant of Southwest Washington in the late 1950s. The catastrophic impact of urban renewal helped catalyze an era of grassroots citizen activism throughout Washington in the decade after the legal barriers to racial segregation had tumbled. From the late 1950s to the late 1960s, black and white activists fought back against the business interests and unelected officials who ran Washington, challenging embedded economic inequalities in the black-majority city. Mobilizing citizen power, they struggled to stem white flight, open economic opportunities, build affordable housing, end police brutality, and win home rule. It was a time of extraordinary social ferment, escalating tensions, and explosive confrontation as Washingtonians questioned the basic relationship between the city and the nation. Progress, however, did not keep up with expectations. Despite years of protests, negotiations, hearings, and reports about racial inequality, Washington remained separate and unequal, the divide between black and white only seemed to grow wider, and frustration within the low-income black community intensified.

This chapter focuses upon community responses to displacement as a result of much less evident causes, high lighting the underlying operations of market forces. Marketisation processes have been intensifying competition for dwindling supplies of genuinely affordable housing, for instance, leading to processes of social cleansing. Tensions within and between communities have been exacerbated as a result. But there have also been examples of solidarity in face of threats of displacement via market forces, as the chapter illustrates, concluding by reflecting upon some of the potential implications for the development of public policies.

The Great Migration saw millions of African Americans move from rural areas to cities between the 1940s and 1970s. The existence of segregated housing meant that African Americans were forced into the most impoverished residences. In the 50s and 60s, the government implemented urban renewal projects in which inadequate housing was destroyed. Subsequently, private land developers were supposed to purchase heavily subsidized land and build affordable housing for those displaced by the demolitions. Instead, land developers built housing and shopping areas for middle class clientele. Ultimately, more affordable housing was destroyed than was built, further contributing to the urban housing crisis. After the push to provide more housing for African Americans living in cities, the FHA and private companies saw an opportunity to increase profits. They knew that maintaining segregation would ultimately benefit the housing industry and in turn, the economy at large. They also realized expanding housing opportunities for African Americans would do the same. Overall, the FHA and private companies enacted practices that kept entry into White suburbs difficult for African Americans, which increased the ability to financially exploit African Americans looking for better housing.

George Romney announced his resignation from HUD after Nixon’s reelection in November 1972, citing the lack of integrity and honesty in politics as his reason. Nixon declared the urban crisis over despite the fact that HUD had met very few of its goals and certainly had not eradicated urban poverty. With Romney’s departure, funding and construction of affordable housing ceased and several community improvement programs were eliminated. Nixon cut billions from affordable housing and urban renewal programs despite the fact the funds had already been appropriated by Congress. Ultimately, Nixon claimed that housing issues should be solved by more local authorities. Section 8 was introduced to allow privately owned businesses to rent to public housing recipients. Unfortunately, section 8 vouchers were often not enough to move people out of inadequate housing, and private owners were not obligated to accept section 8 vouchers.

By the 1970s, the sustained vacation of cities by White Americans shrunk the tax base needed to improve urban housing. Additionally, funding for domestic programs was compromised by the cost of the Vietnam War. The strain for resources lead to the private-public partnerships that characterized the response to urban poverty in the mid-twentieth century. The Joint Committee on Urban Problems (JCUP) was formed by several insurance companies. The JCUP provided funding for several urban development programs. The private sector had a demonstrated interest in profit and not racial integration, which would have been a natural by-product of fair housing. Ultimately, the JCUP and other private companies reinforced segregation and exploited Black potential-home owners. The author suggests that had companies been willing to build affordable housing in White suburbs and the government more rigorously enforced fair housing laws, the urban housing crisis could have improved.

Higher land and property values are seen as an indicator of success of leverage planning. However, they drive lower income households and businesses out of areas and result in a different range of services for local communities. This chapter explores how a planning system could protect lower value land uses through zoning and other means. It covers: affordable housing; secondary and tertiary retail outlets (a largely ignored issue); SME workplaces and start-up space and the use of empty properties, including the empty public estate.