Millions of people live in areas that expose them to hazardous conditions and jeopardize their health. Across the nation, existing and newly built public and subsidized housing is concentrated in low-economic opportunity areas. Disproportionately Black and Brown communities face high levels of poverty and high exposure to environmental dangers. The federal government’s long history of disinvestment in public housing has profound consequences for Black and Brown communities, including high rates of poverty, health risks due to exposure to environmental hazards, and a lack of economic and educational opportunities.
On this episode of Justice Above All, hosted by TMI Senior Fellow and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Julián Castro, we explore the geography and environment of public housing, and how anti-public housing sentiment has impacted its development.
NIMBYism: An acronym meaning Not In My Backyard, NIMBYism is characterized by opposition of residents to the construction of developments in their local neighborhoods.
Opposition to the construction of public housing in higher-opportunity areas, which are typically wealthier and whiter, is often loud and influential. NIMBYism has derailed the development of public housing in higher-opportunity neighborhoods where residents would have more access to economic mobility, better funded schools, and cleaner air and water.
Concerns about “behavior problems,” property values, and the type of culture new developments may bring are a part of larger anti-public housing sentiment and can be rife with dog whistles and racist appeals. While these concerns are unfounded, they pose a real threat to the development of subsidized housing in higher economic opportunity areas.
census tracts with poverty rates below 15 percent and labor force participation rates above 60 percent.
tracts where more than 20 percent of adults have completed college.
tracts where the non-Hispanic white share of the population exceeds 70 percent.
tracts with more than 200,000 low-wage jobs located within five miles of the tract centroid.
Definitions from Urban Institute.
Proximity to Superfund sites can cause life-long issues such as cancer, birth defects, and developmental disabilities. These locations are so polluted that the federal government has classified them as in need of a long-term response to clean up hazardous materials. An estimated 21 million people are living near Superfund sites, potentially exposing them to toxins and chemicals like lead, arsenic, and mercury. These chemicals impact the quality of the air people breathe, the water they drink, and the ground conditions around them.
Research has found that affordable housing can actually increase nearby property values or, at the very least, does not negatively affect them. This debunks the erroneous claim that subsidizing housing results in a decrease in property values.
A new study found that in Chicago, the average home price, relative to comparable homes in other neighborhoods, increased in value by 10% by being within a quarter-mile of the first built affordable housing development in the neighborhood. The study also found that additional developments built in the neighborhood further increased the value of homes in the area.
Property values matter because higher property values generally indicate that a neighborhood is a desirable place to start a business and make long-term investments. Property values are also very important to individual homeowners. For most people a majority of their wealth comes from their home, and home equity can provide resources for retirement or education.
In 1972, the West Calumet Housing Complex (WCHC) opened on top of a former lead smelting plant in East Chicago, Indiana. The federal government ignored several opportunities to identify and clean up site contamination at WCHC, and as a result, WCHC residents lived in unsafe, hazardous conditions for decades which led to the lead poisoning of children.
Figure 1 (from HUD’s 2021 report on contaminated sites) shows WCHC’s proximity to hazardous sites. HUD’s report indicates that, “[b]etween 2005 and 2015, a child living in WCHC had almost a three times greater chance of having elevated blood lead levels than children living in other areas of East Chicago.”
A sign is posted in front of the Brio Superfund site on September 4, 2017 in Friendswood, Texas. (via Getty Images)
Analysis by Urban Institute examines how living near toxic waste sites impacts health and how policy measures can help mitigate the risks of exposure. HUD owns, operates, or subsidizes 18,158 properties located within one mile of superfund sites, putting the health and safety of thousands of households at risk.
