The racist US policy known as ‘middle-income housing’ is a massive failure

Moving low-income, Black people into better' neighborhoods splits up communities and does not solve poverty

For 20 or so years, the architects of public housing have clung tightly to what became conventional wisdom in the field: move residents of low-income neighborhoods out of public housing and into economically resourced neighborhoods.

As the theory goes, middle-class and wealthy communities with high-quality schools, healthcare and public facilities could work wonders" on the residents of low-income and mostly Black neighborhoods. This idea - which advocates call mixed-income housing" and includes Section 8, among other programs - depends on the idea that people with low incomes, especially those who are Black, are somehow culturally deficient. They need to be immersed in better" neighborhoods so they are no longer exposed to food deserts, street violence and a lack of employment opportunities.