Edina Neighbors for Affordable Housing

A secret agreement has allowed the nation’s homebuilders to make it much easier to block changes to building codes that would require new houses to better address climate change, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.

The arrangement, in place for years, guarantees industry representatives a bloc of seats on two powerful committees that recommend building codes.

A federal program to encourage black homeownership in the 1970s ended in a flood of foreclosures.

“Racial discrimination persisted in the new market because it was good business, not simply because the industry was stuck in its old ways. Our failure to fully recognize this history has meant that housing policy continues to uncritically revolve around market-based solutions even as black homeownership rates fall to historic lows. It’s hard to uproot these predatory practices because race has been so important to the real estate industry’s bottom line.”

Prof. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor is Asst. Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University. She is an expert on housing policy.

In southwest Connecticut, the gap between rich and poor is wider than anywhere else in the country. Invisible walls created by local zoning boards and the state government block affordable housing and, by extension, the people who need it.

Beyond watching their bottom line, cities have a moral imperative to care about residents’ financial health. Can a city be great if only some residents are thriving? Can a city be successful if many residents are close to financial ruin because of a spell of unemployment or a broken down car? Empowering residents with the financial tools to prosper moves cities closer to being more equitable to all who call it home.

As the nation grapples with the growing gap between rich and poor and an economy increasingly reliant on formal education, public policies should address housing market regulations that prohibit all but the very affluent from enrolling their children in high-scoring public schools in order to promote individual social mobility and broader economic security.