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48 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 72 (1973)
Homeownership for the Poor: Subsidies and Racial Segregation

handle is hein.journals/nylr48 and id is 96 raw text is: HOMEOWNERSHIP FOR THE POOR: SUBSIDIES AND RACIAL SEGREGATION RONALD H. SILVER * The adage, there's no place like home, represents the grim truth of homelessness to many Americans whose poverty makes homeownership, and even marginal living conditions, unattainable dreams. Much federal legislation has been directed toward inade- quate housing; Section 235 of the National Housing Act, enacted into law in 1968, encourages home purchases by poor families through a system of mortgage-interest subsidies. Whatever the benefits of this program, however, black 235 purchasers have been overwhelmingly segregated from white 235 purchasers. Professor Silverman discusses the multiple and related causes for this sec- tion 235 segregation, the consequences which follow from such segregation and the prospects for corrective action. He concludes by observing that the maintenance of a lawful 235 program may require its association with various urban assistance strategies which would work to neutralize the program's unhappy race-related effects. I INTRODUCTION S ECTION 235 of the National Housing Act provides lower- income people with opportunities for subsidized homeowner- ship.' Since 1968 when section 235 became law as part of that year's omnibus Housing and Urban Development Act (1968 Act), the program has added substantially to the total inventory of fed- erally subsidized lower-income housing.2 Nevertheless, a Presi- dential moratorium or freeze on all new commitments for the section 235 program, as well as for other lower-income housing programs, has been announced effective as of January 5, 1973.1 * Assistant Professor of Law, Syracuse University College of Law. I am grateful for the research assistance of John Caster, a third-year law student at Syracuse University. 1 Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 (originally enacted as Act of Aug. 1, 1968, Pub. L. No. 90-448, § 101(a), 82 Stat. 476, as amended 12 U.S.C. § 1715z (1970)). 2 The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provided $487.5 million for a total of 428,500 subsidized housing units for the poor during fiscal year 1972. The Section 235 Home Ownership Program alone provided for 153,000 units, second only to the 157,500 units provided by the Section 236 Multiple Unit-Rental Assistance Program, and well ahead of the record total of 100,000 public housing units provided during the fiscal year. An additional total of 115,500 units was projected, prior to the Presidential freeze, for fiscal year 1973, under section 235, section 236 and the Rent Supplement Program. Of this projected total, 54,000 units were to be provided under section 23S whUe 49,00 and 12,000 units were to be provided by the section 236 and rent supplement pro- grams respectively. See 3 HUD Newsletter, Aug. 28, 1972, at 3. 3 31 Cong. Q. Weekly Rep., Jan. 13, 1973, at 40. The President's suspension does not appear to have been promulgated in an Executive Order. Imaged with the Permission of N.Y.U. Law Review

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