Do Land Use Plans Affirmatively Further Fair Housing?

Abstract

Problem, research strategy, and findings

The 1968 Fair Housing Act required local government recipients of federal money to take meaningful actions to affirmatively further fair housing (AFFH). Current fair housing analysis requirements are copious but do not request an assessment of how land use policies affect the potential for neighborhood integration. A recent California law requires local governments to include AFFH analysis in existing planning processes, and state guidelines encourage the measurement of the spatial distribution of planned sites for low-income housing with respect to opportunity. We propose and evaluate a fair housing land use score (FHLUS) that measures whether local governments’ land use policies promote inclusion across neighborhoods. We illustrate the FHLUS by examining zoning and housing plans for three municipalities in California that differ in terms of neighborhood variation in incomes. In all three cases, we found that municipal zoning and housing plans exacerbated patterns of segregation rather than reversed them. Our metric is more precise than existing approaches, but all measures of this phenomenon will be less useful in smaller, more homogenous jurisdictions. The analysis raises important questions about the geographic scale and outcome measures for AFFH analysis and expectations for municipalities of different sizes and levels of diversity.

Takeaway for practice

Our metric is a useful tool for advocates and planners at all levels of government. We recommend the federal government consider incorporating it into the AFFH toolkit and practicing planners employ the measure to analyze local zoning and investment decisions. The Technical Appendix is a step-by-step guide, including an Excel formula.

Keywords:

• affirmatively further fair housing
• California
• plan evaluation
• zoning reform

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Michael Manville, Noah Kazis, Aaron Barrall, anonymous reviewers and the editor of the Journal of the American Planning Association, and participants at the 2021 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Conference, the 49th Annual Pepperdine Law Review Symposium in March 2022, and the Second Annual Housing Forum at the University of Oregon in June 2022 for their insightful comments and suggestions.

Research Support

This project was funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental data for this article can be can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2023.2213214.

Notes

1 The Biden Administration issued a rulemaking notice on measurable improvements advancing equity and providing access to opportunity for underserved populations in the June 2022 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. (Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, 2023).

2 We use the term low-income housing to refer to deed-restricted housing built with subsidies for people with low incomes, recognizing that there are varying definitions.

3 Examples of the other factors are community opposition, private discrimination, and lack of investment.

4 California has a regional fair share housing planning system. Currently, federal AFFH implementation does not have an avenue to create regional fair share systems, however, even if the between-municipality redistribution of low-income housing is more important than its within-municipality distribution.

5 We chose from municipalities in Southern California because their housing element update timeline was the same and before other regions in the state.

6 Changes in FHLUS scores could reflect changes in the underlying composition of neighborhoods as well as land use changes.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paavo Monkkonen

PAAVO MONKKONEN ([email protected]) is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Michael Lens

MICHAEL LENS ([email protected]) is an associate professor at UCLA.

Moira O’Neill

MOIRA O’NEILL ([email protected]) is an associate research scientist at the University of Virginia.

Christopher Elmendorf

CHRISTOPHER ELMENDORF ([email protected]) is a professor at UC Davis.

Gregory Preston

GREGORY PRESTON ([email protected]) is a PhD student at UCLA.

Raine Robichaud

RAINE ROBICHAUD ([email protected]) is a researcher in Berkeley, California.