12 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • MARCH 2021
GOVERNMENT’S ROLE
ENDING HOUSING DISCRIMINATION
BY ELAINE GROSS
President of ERASE Racism
Long Island is one of the nation’s 10
most racially segregated metropolitan
regions, and its two counties include
more than 100 villages, towns, and
cities. That web of jurisdictions keeps
racial segregation in place through
home rule: the power of local governments
to control what may be built in a
neighborhood and who is permitted to
live there. Ending racial segregation
in housing, therefore, depends on
changes by local governments, which
should take the following actions:
First, every local government – county,
city, town, and village – should
examine its role in residential racial
discrimination and segregation and
announce concrete steps to affirmatively
further fair housing. Those
steps should include the following:
Examine patterns of racial segregation
within the jurisdiction, including
if People of Color are excluded from
the jurisdiction; in cases where neighborhoods
lack People of Color, ensure
that any new housing is aggressively
marketed to attract racially excluded
groups; implement campaigns to make
clear that housing discrimination by
realtors or residents will not be tolerated
and notify authorities if discrimination
is suspected; ensure that all
neighborhoods receive equal public
services and that those occupied by
racial minorities are not neglected.
Second, the process of developing
multifamily housing, which is key to
offering the range of options needed to
end housing discrimination, should be
streamlined and more predictable. Local
governments should significantly
increase the number of areas zoned “as
of right” for such development. They
should encourage redevelopment of
vacant facilities such as commercial
buildings and strip malls as mixeduse
and mixed-income properties.
They should not wait for developers
to come to them but should encourage
builders to present proposals for land
already re-zoned. If development proposals
must be reviewed by more than
one governing body – a zoning board
and a town board, for instance – the
review process should be coordinated
to allow presentations to both bodies
simultaneously. The review process
overall should be less expensive for
developers, who factor its length and
uncertainty into the cost of the resulting
housing.
Third, local governments should advance
inclusion through a wide range
of housing options, including rental
properties, and eliminate discriminatory
restrictions on who can benefit
from them. Some communities have
geographic preferences for multifamily
units, prioritizing people who
already live in the community. Those
preferences merely reinforce existing
racial segregation or exclusion and
usually violate fair housing laws.
Historically, all levels of government
have advanced housing discrimination.
Now, all are needed to eliminate
it. The federal and New York State
governments have taken recent
promising steps. Local governments
on Long Island must act, too, given the
extent of racial segregation that they
have overseen.
“Local governments on Long Island must act... given
the extent of racial segregation"
POINT OF VIEW
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