HOUSINGÂ - 1930S
On December 2, 1931, Herbert Hoover hosted the Conference on Home Building and Home Ownership. Comprised of civic leaders dedicated to helping the "negro housing" crisis, the group outlined how the Black population in New York had increased by over 200,000 between 1910 and 1930 and point out how, "The level of Negro income points him toward the sections of low-priced dwellings. Real estate operators and home building concerns or individuals find it impracticable to build new homes in deteriorated residence areas. From the new developments, negroes are almost universally debarred. The available houses, thus, are limited to these run-down areas which, as they become less and less desirable, command less and less rent and correspondingly lower income groups of the white population. Few repairs are made and eventually a point is reached at which it is more profitable to admit negroes than to lower the rentals further. Few new houses are built in the negro areas..." Meetings and conferences like this one would keep happening for years to come, but no real step towards change would happen until the 1960s. In 1934, the Fair Housing Administration (FHA) was established under FDR. The FHA established redlining, refusing to insure mortgages for Blacks and subsidizing builders who created white only neighborhoods (which would become known as housing projects). (Right: Headline advertising the December 1930 conference)
HOUSING - 1940S
During the war years, people of all races experienced an economic boom. Some whites were able to leave their project housing by the end of the decade. The latter half of the decade also saw more developments devoted exclusively to African Americans being created, although these developments were not without push back. Many city officials would block "negro housing" due to land values or their proximity to white areas. The headline on the left is talking about how officials in Miami refused to sell 600 acres of land to a developer because lots were going for as much as $1,600.
HOUSING - 1950S
In the 1950s, most white families left the city and project housing in favor of the suburbs. Project housing developments were forced to open themselves up to Black families and became what people now call "the projects" or "ghettos." Funding for these areas was now almost non-existent, and many families who rented found their homes in disrepair within a few years. Instead of putting money back into these communities, city and county officials attempted to make life easier for whites living in the suburbs by constructing freeways and highways to make commutes easier. These roadways would severely lower home values and were commonly put in areas where Blacks and Latinos lived. Most suburbs also had HOAs, with many establishing in their CC&Rs that homeowners could not sell their homes to POC.
HOUSING - 1960S
In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was signed into law, but it did not protect POC against housing discrimination. Blacks protested predatory lending practices and housing discrimination, resulting in the 1968 Fair Housing Act, which banned neighborhoods from discriminating against POC. However, the act did not offer any sort of financial aid or incentive to African Americans for purchasing homes. Due to their homes typically being located in poor areas, many Blacks could not afford to move into traditionally white areas, meaning they were forced to stay in subpar living conditions when compared to whites in the same income bracket.