Between 2019 and 2021, the State of California adopted new policies to encourage production of family-serving affordable housing in “high-opportunity” neighborhoods with characteristics linked to upward mobility, college attendance, and other positive long-term outcomes for children. Historically, only a small share of family-serving affordable housing had been developed in these neighborhoods.
These changes to the State’s affordable housing funding programs were an attempt to improve access to opportunity for families with children and address the persistent problem of residential segregation in California. Mounting evidence has shown how residential segregation reproduces racial and economic inequality by creating separate and sharply unequal neighborhoods. Further, state and federal affirmatively furthering fair housing (AFFH) mandates require all public agencies to administer housing and community development programs in a way that both reverses patterns of segregation (e.g., by expanding housing choices and promoting integrated neighborhoods) and transforms racially concentrated areas of poverty into places of opportunity. This dual strategy is often called the “both/and” approach to advancing AFFH objectives.
In this report, we document the degree of change in the location of family-serving affordable housing following the State’s adoption of “opportunity area incentives” in its funding programs and provide evidence to support policy recommendations to strengthen the State’s approach to advancing AFFH objectives.