Housing Inequality in America Main Menu The Generational Illusion: An Essay An Essay by Collin Andrews Environmental Racism: How Residential Segregation Shapes Environmental Inequality Historic Preservation Coast to Coast Title Page Native American Housing: How Poor Housing Harms Indigenous Health How Poor Housing Harms Indigenous Health Pets & Housing: It's "Ruff" by Katie Cline How NIMBYism Exacerbates Housing Inequality Where's the Wealth! How Housing Discrimination has led to racial wealth inequality in the United States Immigrant Housing Inequality in America Iswat Jinad Surveillance Inequality An investigation into how poor communities are oversurveilled creating a cycle of more targeted and aggressive forms of surveillance for them and those around them. Race, Repressive State Apparatus, and Homelessness: From Colonialism to COVID-19 Tina Nandi Housing Inequality and Access to Quality Education MQ: Title Page Visualizing racial housing discrimination Splash page for path that includes interactive resources regarding racial housing discrimination Project information and credits

Post-WWII Urban Flight and the Birth of the Suburbs

41237
Post-World War II America saw a revolutionary change in habitation. A country healing from the devastation of the Great Depression bookended by two wars, Americans faced a national average income decrease of more than 50%, leading to foreclosures on businesses and homes alike . In response to this crisis, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the FHA, or the Federal Housing Administration, as part of the New Deal, which provided federal loans and aid to increase homeownership . This began the national trend of the migration of American families out of cities and into new developments of more affordably-constructed homes, giving birth to a new habitat: the suburbs, which today make up the majority of American household developments .

While the FHA was certainly responsible for increasing homeownership in the United States. However, the benefits of this programming and development did not extend to all Americans—in fact, the FHA was explicitly made exclusively for white families only, and with the emphasis on conformity created by Levitt, Black couples and families were barred from residency in these neighborhoods. This exclusion took many forms, from bureaucratic and political policies such as redlining and access to loans to physical violence. The FHA’s deliberately racist policies were largely responsible for constraining Black individuals and families in communities with limited education, resources, and opportunities for employment . From the beginning, the creation of the suburbs was founded upon racist and discriminatory policies, the repercussions of which still sustain significant inequality in the housing landscape today.




 

Contents of this path:

  1. Suburban Beginnings
  2. Levittown
  3. Trumbull Park Homes
  4. Suburban Housing Inequality Today
  5. Works Cited
  6. Bio: Melissa Ladd

This page has tags:

  1. Class Inequality Rene Oswald Ayala
  2. Redlining Rene Oswald Ayala
  3. Wealth Building Rene Oswald Ayala
  4. Racial Inequality Rene Oswald Ayala
  5. Fair Housing Act Trisha A Bonham
  6. Discrimination Andrew Bartel
  7. Trumbull Park Rene Oswald Ayala
  8. Racial Discrimination Rene Oswald Ayala
  9. Food desert Trisha A Bonham
  10. Race Riots Rene Oswald Ayala
  11. Suburbs Rene Oswald Ayala
  12. Race Rene Oswald Ayala
  13. Suburbanization Rene Oswald Ayala
  14. Levittown Trisha A Bonham
  15. Housing Segregation Trisha A Bonham
  16. Inequality Iswat Jinad

This page references: