Housing segregation in the us Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Housing segregation in the us - Research Paper Example Gotham (2000, p. 13) found out that while housing subsidy housing programs created a situation for a great number of white families to buy â€Å"new† housing units in suburban areas, African American families were only able to buy â€Å"existing† homes in â€Å"racially transitional neighborhoods† in the inner city. Gotham (2000, p. 13) interpreted his data to mean that his research corroborated research that showed that the â€Å"market-centered† focus of federal housing policy has created obstacles to the â€Å"ability of African Americans to accumulate wealth through home ownership and reinforced racially segregate housing patterns.† For Gotham, the culprit is Section 235 of the 1968 Housing Act that â€Å"was designed to shift the focus of federal housing policy away from dispensing aid to local housing authorities for building public housing to providing direct supply-side subsidies to the private sector to stimulate home ownership for nonwhit es and the poor† (2000, p. 13). Taking off from the work of Oliver and Shapiro (1995), Gotham argued (2000, p. 14) that the operation and implementation of the United States 1968 housing program is an example of the â€Å"racialization of state policy.† Citing the study of Massey and Denton (1993), Gotham (2000, p. 15) specifically pointed out Kansas City as one of the United States’ prime examples of â€Å"hypersegregated metropolitan areas due to the high degree of segregation in housing patterns on a range of indices.† Gotham (2000, p. 16) blames the â€Å"segregative effects of federal housing policies and programs, and private real estate activity† for the hypersegregation. In addition, Gotham said (2000, p. 17) â€Å"the various economic and political dimension of housing-related activities have been conducted through an organized and interconnected system of racial discrimination.† At the same time, Gotham (2000, p. 17) also pointed out racial discrimination was