CERD Committee report: The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has completed its first review since 2014 of the United States’ compliance with the CERD treaty, and its Concluding Observations report offers an overview of US progress – and lack of progress – on a wide range of racial justice issues. The CERD hearings this year were notable for the strong turnout from US NGOs, including many speakers from indigenous communities and other communities affected by racially discriminatory policies. The Committee report includes a particular rebuke of the Administration’s lack of progress in addressing school and housing segregation, echoing the points that PRRAC and its partners raised in a pair of shadow reports earlier this summer. The Committee’s specific recommendations on housing and schools include a call for the US to:
> “Develop[] and adopt[] a comprehensive plan to address socio-economic and racial segregation in schools and communities, with concrete goals, timelines”
> “Expand[] federal funding for programmes and policies that promote racial integration in public schools”
> “adopt all necessary measures to eliminate residential segregation, including by addressing the impact of exclusionary zoning and land use laws and practices that disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minorities”
Housing Mobility Training Institute – October 24-25 in Baltimore, MD: Designed to equip housing mobility program staff with new skills and connections, this interactive institute from Mobility Works will be led by practitioners, advocates, and policy experts and will include time for network building and peer exchange. Participants will learn about trauma-informed pre- and post-move services; mobility-oriented HCV administration; landlord incentives, outreach, and recruitment; program troubleshooting; tenant/client leadership; and the historical and policy context of housing mobility. Register now!
Other resources
“Segregation Autopilot” in the Iowa Law Review – a great exposition of the ways in which agencies across the federal government perpetuate segregation, by Professor Heather Abraham at SUNY-Buffalo. The article also provides a roadmap of what the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing obligation should look like outside traditional “housing” agencies like HUD and the Treasury Department.
Polling data from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health track self-reported health and economic challenges faced by Black Americans, summarized in two recent reports, Personal Experiences of U.S. Racial/Ethnic Minorities in Today’s Difficult Times and a companion report, Neighborhood-Level Differences in Black Americans’ Experiences in Today’s Difficult Times.
More evidence on school segregation and health outcomes: The Social Policies for Health Equity Research group at UCSF has released a research brief titled “School segregation harms Black children’s health and wellbeing.” Another study, by Robert Hahn in Health Equity, links school segregation with lowered life expectancy.
Ghosts of redevelopment: Segregation by design is a compelling new visual website that will help a new generation understand the racial impacts of mid-twentieth century city planning.
Open Communities Alliance is seeking a new Policy and Data Analyst position to support their efforts to address exclusionary zoning and affirmatively further fair housing in Connecticut (OCA also this week brought a major exclusionary zoning case against a New Haven suburb).
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