Housing Discrimination and Urban Issues Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering housing policies, redlining, blockbusting, ghettoization, HUD housing distribution, food deserts, and urban crime factors based on the lecture notes.

Policy

A high-level overall plan embracing the general goals and acceptable procedures especially of a governmental body.

Redlining

When a bank refuses to offer home loans on the basis of a neighborhood's racial or ethnic makeup, rooted in a 1930s government program that labeled primarily African-American neighborhoods as areas of poor investment.

Exploit

To take unfair advantage of.

Blockbusting

Housing discrimination maintained by the real estate industry where white families were encouraged to rapidly sell homes at below-market prices out of fear that property values would drop when African-American families moved in, while Black families were charged higher rates to buy.

Fair Housing Act of 1968

The legislation that technically made both redlining and blockbusting illegal in the United States.

Ghettoization

The degradation of inner cities in America that occurs when affluent white Americans move out of inner cities to the suburbs and the population is replaced with poorer populations.

US Department for Housing & Urban Development (HUD)

A federal agency that funds low-income public housing, with 60% located in cities and only 19% located in suburbs, leading to increased economic segregation.

Food Desert

A location where residents' access to affordable, healthy food options (especially fresh fruits and vegetables) is restricted or nonexistent due to the absence of grocery stores within convenient traveling distance.

Results of Food Deserts

An abundance of corner stores, gas stations, and fast food restaurants offering low-quality, unhealthy food at higher prices, resulting in health issues such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.

Factors Impacting Urban Crime Rates

Factors in economically and racially segregated urban areas that increase crime, including lack of job opportunities, lack of resources and infrastructure, desperation and isolation, and the criminalization of homelessness and mental health issues.