Housing programs adopted during the New Deal increased segregation in American cities and towns, creating racial disparities that continue to characterize life in the 21st century, research finds.

“New Deal housing policies encouraged racial segregation and their substantial impact on American cities and towns can still be seen today,” says New York University sociologist Jacob Faber, whose research appears in the American Sociological Review.

The new study is the first to estimate the effects of early-20th-century housing policies on subsequent segregation patterns.

Today’s practice of American homeownership stems from government programs adopted during the New Deal. The Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC)—and later the Federal Housing Administration and GI Bill—expanded home-buying opportunity, but were marked by segregationist practices.

“Through mechanisms such as redlining, these policies fueled white suburbanization and Black ghettoization, while laying the foundation for the racial wealth gap,” explains Faber, an associate professor at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and the university’s department of sociology.

In 2010, Black residents living in HOLC-appraised cities, which include large cities (e.g., New York and Chicago) as well as small towns (e.g., Fairfield, Alabama; La Grange, Illinois; New London, Connecticut; Newport News, Virginia; and Woburn, Massachusetts), were more isolated from white residents compared to Blacks living in non-appraised cities, such as Elizabeth, New Jersey. The effect of these programs was much larger among cities and towns in the South, which were slow to adopt fair housing legislation.

“The long-term impact of these policies is a reminder of the intentionality that shaped racial geography in the United States and the scale of intervention that will be required to disrupt the persistence of segregation,” observes Faber.

Read the full article about the impact of New Deal housing policies by James Devitt at Futurity.