Fair Housing Workshop with Housing Preservation and Development

Fair Housing 101

In 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. taped a list of demands to the entrance of Chicago City Hall. Among his demands were an increase in the supply of housing units for low- and middle-class families in every neighborhood, greater oversight of real estate operations, equal lending requirements for banks, and the rehabilitation of public housing. This list from the mid-20th century could easily have originated from housing advocates today. The 1968 Fair Housing Act, passed in the aftermath of King’s assassination, officially outlawed discrimination in the renting, selling, and financing of housing. But the consequences of discrimination have long outlived their legality. In this training from the Neighborhood Planning team in HPD’s Office of Neighborhood Strategies, we’ll explore the roots of New York City’s segregated living patterns, the unfulfilled potential of the Fair Housing Act to disrupt those patterns, and the City’s plan to affirmatively further fair housing by promoting greater neighborhood choice AND working with communities to build choice neighborhoods.