New Report Reveals How Moving Patterns Contribute to Residential Segregation

Residential segregation reproduces racial and economic inequality by creating separate and unequal neighborhood environments. The depth and intractable nature of this longstanding problem has inspired renewed efforts in California to reform state and local policies, such as by making changes to affordable housing funding programs and local land use rules. 

A new analysis from the California Housing Partnership and colleagues at UCLA provides novel insights into how residential mobility patterns – where people move from, and to – help maintain residential segregation in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles County, and the rest of the state.

Although the frequency at which people move offers the possibility of breaking down patterns of segregation, the findings from this research provide a sobering reminder of the need for policy intervention. For example:

• People generally move in a way that reinforces pre-existing patterns of neighborhood inequality by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status – both in terms of exposure to concentrated poverty and access to high-resource neighborhoods, which offer children from low-income families the best chance at moving into the middle and upper classes as adults. For example, the rate at which people in each racial/ethnic group and credit category move into high-resource neighborhoods matches the rate at which they already live in these areas.

• Some groups contribute more to maintaining residential segregation than others. For example, Black movers are unique in typically making moves that reduce segregation, while white movers rarely make racially integrative moves. This trend is most pronounced for moves into the most opportunity-rich neighborhoods; in the Bay Area, 99% of moves by Black people into these neighborhoods reduced racial residential segregation.

These findings point to the need for both housing supply- and demand-side interventions that show promise for inducing more equitable residential mobility patterns and achieving a more integrated society. Strategies include efforts to accelerate production of multifamily and affordable housing in high-resource neighborhoods, investing more deeply and comprehensively in lower-resource neighborhoods, and providing support for lower socioeconomic status households in making upwardly mobile moves.

The California Housing Partnership creates and preserves affordable and sustainable homes for Californians with low incomes by providing expert financial and policy solutions to nonprofit and public partners. Since 1988, the Partnership's on-the-ground technical assistance, applied research, and legislative leadership has leveraged $37 billion in private and public financing to preserve and create more than 96,000 affordable homes. 

Visit us at www.chpc.net.

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