A Brief History of Segregation

Racial discrimination has been not only an interpersonal issue but also an institutional one. State-sanctioned policies, programs, and practices enabled the development of segregated urban residential landscapes across the United States.

The New Deal & Redlining

During the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt confronted the Great Depression by establishing several “New Deal” government programs and agencies designed to encourage economic stability and growth: the United States Housing Authority, Federal Housing Administration, and Home Owners' Loan Corporation were created to facilitate American homeownership. Unfortunately, the first organization authorized the construction of racially segregated public housing and the latter two spearheaded the obstruction of government-sponsored homeownership and private investment in areas with “inharmonious racial groups.”

These areas, deemed unfit for investment, were  "redlined," or colored red on appraisal maps of cities across the country. Such practices fortified the development of segregated housing. Redlining provided an incentive for racially restrictive covenants, which barred Black people and other minority groups from owning certain parcels of property in predominantly white neighborhoods and new housing developments, by requiring such covenants for mortgage insurance. These covenants were extremely prevalent in the United States until Congress passed the 1968 Fair Housing Act. However, cities such as New Haven, Hartford, and Bridgeport demonstrate that formerly redlined areas remain racially segregated areas of poverty today.

Urban Renewal

Moreover, the urban renewal movement caused a great amount of dislocation of communities of color. In 1949, the Federal Housing Act allocated public funds for “slum clearance” with the goal of improving the quality of life for people in neighborhoods considered “blighted.” The effect was quite the opposite, with neighborhood fabrics torn apart and new housing quickly falling into disrepair. These projects were particularly egregious in New Haven, which received more federal money per capita than any other city for and used it to fund projects such as the Oak Street Connector, a highway system that displaced 886 families and uprooted an entire neighborhood. Today, New Haven is working on projects to remedy the harmful outcomes of these developments.

Modern Zoning Practices

Unfortunately, modern municipal zoning ordinances have also perpetuated racial segregation nationwide under the guise of protecting property values, and the zoning boards of wealthy Connecticut towns are notorious for impeding efforts to construct affordable, multi-family housing. Long-standing, hyper-localized land use regimes have engendered and entrenched racial and socioeconomic segregation. In some cases, prospective affordable housing builders must navigate cumbersome bureaucratic processes to obtain construction permits. In others, developers cannot construct multi-family properties at all.

Of Connecticut’s 169 municipalities, only 19 allow housing with three or more units without requiring special permits. Additionally, Connecticut’s affordable housing efforts have overwhelmingly targeted lower-income areas. Between 2011 and 2013, Connecticut allocated 48.6% of its affordable housing tax credits to neighborhoods where the poverty rate was greater than 30%. This allocation scheme constricts the mobility of lower-income residents. Many legislative attempts to mitigate housing segregation and foster affordable housing development have been undermined, insubstantial, or altogether stymied. 

Restrictive zoning, costly review processes, and arbitrary impediments thwart affordable and multi-family housing development. Our land use laws erect walls of exclusion that diminish the housing choice of low-income residents and people of color, perpetuating an unjust state of affairs. The result: Connecticut has higher concentrations of poverty and wealth than many other metropolitan areas nationwide.