Does Your ZIP Code Determine Your Future?

The federal Fair Housing Act was enacted by a bipartisan Congress in 1968 and signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. It banned outright discrimination, such as racial restrictions in zoning and deeds. It also required the government to actively dismantle segregation and foster integration in its place. Since then federal subsidies for affordable housing have focused on poor neighborhoods — with the effect of expanding racial and ethnic ghettos. The Obama Administration now wants cities to build affordable housing in more desirable neighborhoods. The goal is desegregation, but opponents denounce it as "forced integration" and predict resistance to what they call "social engineering."