Convergence: An Analysis of Residential Integration In The 21st Century

Abstract

In this dissertation, I trace the evolution of neighborhood integration in the metropolitan United States from 2000 to 2020, accounting for both ethnoracial and socioeconomic dimensions of integration. My analyses reveal that while neighborhoods have generally grown and remained more ethnoracially and socioeonomically integrated since 2000, stably integrated neighborhoods are still far outnumbered by stably segregated neighborhoods. Next, I highlight the consequences of obstructing integration for systematically disadvantaged communities through exclusionary zoning and explore the possibility of desegregation through fair housing reform leading to sustained integration. I combine the National Zoning and Land Use Database (NZLUD), an original database of zoning and land use regulations created via natural language processing of over 2,600 municipal codes, with prior data to construct a panel dataset of zoning and land use policies spanning from 2003 to 2022, allowing me to estimate the longitudinal and cumulative associations between exclusionary zoning and measures of material hardship in impoverished neighborhoods. I find that municipal- and MSA-level exclusionary zoning is associated with higher monthly median gross rents and greater shares of rent burdened households in impoverished communities. Finally, to assess the role of fair housing litigation in promoting sustained residential integration, I combine the NZLUD with historical records of fair housing litigation and carry out matching and difference-in-differences analyses. The results indicate that fair housing remedies did not have any comprehensive long-term impacts on integration preferences as measured by contemporary zoning and land use restrictiveness, nor did they have comprehensive impacts on long-term Black-white or income integration patterns. In summary, this dissertation advances a more meaningful and comprehensive definition of neighborhood integration to clarify that stable segregation is rooted not in unstable integration, but stably segregated neighborhoods that have experienced little to no change for decades; it makes an empirical case for state- and federal-level zoning and land use reform with evidence of negative, inter-district spillover effects resulting from exclusionary zoning that exacerbate material hardship and spatial inequities; and finally, it informs burgeoning zoning and land use reform efforts by illustrating the need for more comprehensive fair housing interventions.