The Effects of the Housing Crisis on Minority Group
SOC 3300-01: Social Issues in the Urban Setting
Introduction
Housing discrimination has always been a problem in the United States. People will argue that as free Americans people are able to move and live wherever they would like. This is true for people who are white upper-class families, but this is not the case for many low-income minority group families. They have very limited choices on where they can live for many different reasons. If we look at the data provided by the Los Angeles GeoHub we can see that a large part of the Black population and Hispanic population are located in and surrounding areas near South Los Angeles, which is also called South Central. In areas like this people are more often getting displaced from their homes where they have lived for many years. Areas like these are known to be affordable for families that are at poverty level but are also becoming more attractive to younger crowds changing the neighborhood demographics and pushing people out. One of the reasons why these areas are so affordable is because of disinvestment that occurs because of redlining. Disinvestment happens in areas where minority groups are located because these mortgage lenders or even cities deem these areas as not worthy of investment.
Literature Review
One of ways in which they are being discriminated against is when it comes to housing. In 1934 the federal government created the Home Ownership Loan Corporation, which was a program that promoted homeownership by insuring home mortgages which lowered interest rates on home loans. While this was good, this same program blocked loans from happening in African-American neighborhoods making them “credit-unworthy. (Jost, 2017: p. 261)” This what is called redlining, which is when credit lines or real estate personal deem neighborhoods where the majority of its residents is made up of minority groups and so they make these areas uncreditworthy and make them red in maps. This promoted segregation in many cities because it not only discriminated the areas in which loans were being given out, but it also discriminated against the people. Minority groups were not able to get loans to move into better neighborhoods. After this program President Lyndon B. Johnson, created the Fair Housing Act in 1968 which prohibited the discrimination in “housing on the basis of race, religion, or national origin with small exceptions. (Jost, 2017: p.269)” HUD (Housing and Urban Development), which was created in 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson, who are the ones responsible for implementing the Fair Housing Act have been accused of failing to do so. In Baltimore in 2015, HUD was accused of “placing low-income housing only in minority neighborhoods. (Jost, 2017: p. 273)” They have also been criticized for handing out low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs) in minority neighborhoods at disproportionate rate when compared to white neighborhoods, thus promoting segregation. This group is also responsible for overseeing the discrimination complaints but does so at a very slow pace. HUD has responded by saying that they are not able work as efficiently as they could due to funding problems and low staffing.
Housing discrimination now happens in different more subtle ways making them hard to be detected. Minority groups still experience discrimination when trying to rent or buy homes. For example, in many instances real estate brokers will “screen racial and ethnic minorities from buying or renting in non-minority areas. (Jost, 2017: p. 264)” There has also been evidence that shows that minority group that are looking for a place to live will be shown less places than those that were white. People that are looking for places that accept Section 8 vouchers will have very limited choices on where they are able to live. These public housing sectors are usually located in inner cities where there is a large population of minority and they also happen to not be the safest neighborhoods. When people do attempt to relocate to safer neighborhoods, they usually come empty handed. There have been times where public housing has tried to built in areas where there is majority-white neighborhoods but there has been resistance from the community, as said by University of Washington professor Vigdor “there’s just going to be a natural gravitation toward neighborhoods that offer the least amount of resistance. (Jost, 2017: p.266)
People in minority groups also make up a large population of people that live in poverty especially if we focus in on large cities. In 2013, 27.2 percent of African American and 23.5 percent of Hispanics were considered to be at poverty level, when comparing to the only 12.3 percent of whites. (Lemons, 2017: p. 284) People at poverty have many hardships that they have to overcome such as housing affordability which causes them to stay in poverty concentrated areas with high crime making it impossible to get out. Housing affordability is something many people worry about; HUD indicates that families who spend over 30 percent of their income to cover rents or mortgages are considered cost burden and it makes it difficult for them to afford other necessities. Unfortunately, about 12 million families around the United States “pay more than 50 percent of their annual income for housing. (Lemons, 2017: p. 288)” Another problem they might encounter is gentrification which happens when higher-income homeowners move into low-income communities pushing low-income people out. (Lemons, 2017: p. 290) When higher-income people move in it causes home prices and rents to go up because the area becoming a more desirable place to live making it unaffordable for people that already live there. What this literature shows is that housing discrimination is not a thing of the past and is still happening to minority groups today.
Methods
Los Angeles is known for being one of the biggest cities in the United States, having to house all the people that live here does not come as an easy task. To help us analyze the housing crisis in the City of Los Angeles we will be looking at a variety of layers through the Los Angeles GeoHub. We will take a look at the Los Angeles Routine and Complaint from 2018 and 2019. These layers “contains Environmental Health routine and complaint inspection results for hotels/motels and Multi-Family Dwellings (e.g. apartments) with 5 or more units in Los Angeles County. Los Angeles County Environmental Health is responsible for routine inspection and investigations of complaints at hotels, motels, and MFD property with 5 or more units. (Kromer)” Another layer that will be consistent throughout will be the South-Central Council District Boundary Layer, which is “Boundary layer for South Central Los Angeles Council Districts (8, 9, and 10). (Kromer)” From these layers we will create two different hotspots, one for Routines and one for Complaints for both the years 2018 and 2019 which will tell us where the concentration of complaints and routines were located. Another layer we will use is the is the Los Angeles Population Demographics and Poverty Index. This layer shows the population demographics and particularly the Black population, Hispanic population, and the white population. If we look at the indices of this particular layer, we can see it shows us the poverty estimates for each individual neighborhood. We will also be looking at the LA Times Neighborhoods Residential, this layer will have the attributes of homeowners and renters added. With this layer we will be able to see where owner-occupied homes and where renter-occupied renters are located. The next layer we will look at is the LA Times Neighborhoods Income Risk Map which tells us the neighborhoods that are at risk of having under $15000 disposable income, a lower per capita income, and lower than $15000 income and it also tells us the neighborhoods that have a $200000 disposable income, a high capita income, and a $200000 and higher household income from the year 2019. Lastly, we will be looking at the Affordable Housing Development, which shows us where affordable housing is being developed. The way that this data was collected was by looking at various records that were provided by the Los Angeles County Public Records.
Analysis and Findings
In first map we see Complaints Hotspots 2018 and 2019 and the second map we see Routine Hotspots 2018 and 2019 show the complaints and routines hotspots. Figure 1 shows a large concentration of complaints in the darker red areas which are located in South Central. This area is also known for being areas were many minority groups live such as the Hispanic and black population. When we take a look at Figure 2, which is routines which means when they actually went to go out and inspect, we can see that they went and did routines out more towards the darker red which is located in West Los Angeles. The neighborhoods that are located there are West Hollywood and Beverly Hills and not South Central, these neighborhoods are known to be more affluent neighborhoods. This shows that even though these routines are essential to make sure that these places are following guidelines, inspectors go out more often toward areas where the complaints are not happening, showing they are not going to areas that actually need these visits.
In this map we see the Los Angeles Population Demographics and Poverty Index, we can see that the people that are concentrated in and around South Central are the Hispanic and the Black population. This layer is layered on top of the routines and complaints if we look closely, we can see that the majority of the complaints came from the South-Central area which is where the Hispanic and Black population can be found. Another thing that was found was that the areas where they went to go do routine inspections with having no complaints were in areas where the
In this map we are looking at Affordable Housing Development we see that most of the affordable housing that are being developed are in South Central. When we combine this layer with the minority population which are the black and Hispanic, we see that the concentration is there as well. Not only are the concentrated they are also in areas that are high in complaints and low in routine. This is important because it does not show that just because these structures are being built, they will be checked on and made sure that these places are livable as well.
In this map we see Los Angeles Residential Neighborhoods the blue areas that shown are the renter occupied households and the yellow areas are owner occupied households. When we look at the areas that are located in South Central, we can see that these areas are saturated with renter occupied households. These areas are the same areas that are located where there was a hotspot for complaint but not for routines. Showing that these properties might not be as well taken care of as they should. This map also shows the disproportionality between homeowners and renters.
In this map we see LA Times Neighborhoods Income Risk Map show us the communities that are at risk for income. Those areas which are the lightest are where people make and have the most money meaning they do not have financial problems. In the darker areas is where the most at risk incomes are located meaning these people are at risk of making less than $15000 a year putting them in poverty. These people happen to be highly saturated in and around South Central. They are also located in areas where minority groups and affordable housing is being located.
Discussion
The Census Bureau states the about 38.3 percent of Hispanics live at or below the poverty line in Los Angeles. (Data USA, 2017) People will usually stay in places in where they know they can afford or where they have public housing causing them to stay in certain neighborhoods and in some ways, it can also be considered segregation. In 2018 it was reported that only 36.3 percent of the people living in Los Angeles homeowners while the nations average is was 63.9 percent were homeowners which is considerably higher than the number reported in Los Angeles. (Data USA, 2017) People being renters and not owners means that their rent could go up or down and they have no control which way it goes. With Los Angeles going through urban revitalization this can bring problems to those who are renters because with urban revitalization comes higher rents which causes displacement of those people.
Looking at these maps we can see that affordable housing is highly concentrated in areas where there are minority groups and barely any in places where there is a high white population. These white neighborhoods tend to be areas that are better off and have more income, better education, jobs, and services-hence this is why routines inspections happened more frequently in these areas. Their homes will be in better condition than those that live in poorer areas such as South Central. Those higher income neighborhoods have a higher number of routine checkups even though they barely have any complaints. This is the opposite for people that live in poorer neighborhoods, they have more complaints with less routine inspections. This shows how there is a neglect in helping those that need it the most. These routine inspections should be done throughout these neighborhoods evenly to make sure everyone has a livable place to live in.
Conclusion
Housing should be a right for everyone, and it should be with out discrimination of any type. Everyone needs a place to live and call home, it should be a place where people feel safe and happy to go home to. It’s not to say that everyone deserves to live in a big house because that would be impossible, but people should be able to move and live in the neighborhoods they would like to live in. In Los Angeles we see that we have affordable housing, but it is only concentrated in certain areas and not around the city. Sure, there are programs like the Fair Housing Act, but it does not prevent discrimination because of HUDS lack of enforcing affirmative housing through integration. There should be a policy where people do not have to give their name when they are looking for house to avoid being discriminated against. They should still provide such as what is the budget for that person and what type of home they are looking for. By not providing names and things that would give their ethnicity the real estate agent would be able to focus on their need and not their ethnicity minimizing discrimination. The laws that are put into place to develop affordable housing should be followed, if a state or city fails to follow the guidelines there should be higher repercussions that would obligate them to follow the guideline. As we saw there is affordable housing but these sectors are neglected by routine inspections, there should be a law put into place where people must go to where complaints are being made and these agencies should be obligated to go and inspect within the 60 days of the complaint. When these routine inspections are made it assures that everyone get to live inside a livable place. Policies need to be put into place to make sure that everyone has a home to live in.
References
Jost, K. (2017). Housing Discrimination. In Urban issues: selections from CQ Researcher. ThousandOaks: Sage/CQ Press.
Lemons, J. F. (2017). Fighting Urban Poverty . In Urban issues: selections from CQ Researcher. Thousand Oaks: Sage/CQ Press.
