A review of federal data by The New York Times found that in the United States’ biggest metropolitan areas, low-income housing projects that use federal tax credits—the nation’s biggest source of funding for affordable housing—are disproportionately built in majority nonwhite communities.
What this means, fair-housing advocates say, is that the government is essentially helping to maintain entrenched racial divides, even though federal law requires government agencies to promote integration.
The nearly $8-billion-a-year tax credit program allows private developers to apply for credits they can use to help finance new housing or the rehabilitation of existing units.
The program offers developers larger credits for building in poorer communities, which tend to need affordable housing the most but also have large minority populations. That has meant that even in a place like Houston, one of the country’s most diverse cities, racial divides can run deep.
