M. DAVID LEE – Gentrification fears

Massachusetts neighborhoods may be more racially mixed than they were three decades ago, but today they’re not as economically diverse.

The Bay State has a high level of economic segregation compared to other states, according to a white paper expected to be released in about a month.

That economic segregation is going to get much worse in coming years unless the state gets more aggressive in implementing policies that encourage the development of mixed-income housing, according to David Rusk, a leading urban researcher who is writing the paper.

Based on population projections for the state for the next 25 years, which show a measurable increase in [minority populations], you can expect [segregation] to get higher, said Rusk.

Rusk, who has written several books on urban issues, provided a preview of his paper when he spoke at a housing conference earlier this month. Rusk is writing the white paper for the Massachusetts Housing Partnership Fund.

The paper, which looks at growth patterns and the makeup of communities, is the second in an ongoing series of white papers designed to discuss affordable housing issues and solutions. The first paper, issued in the spring, analyzed the market forces that have led to the rapid escalation in home prices in Massachusetts.

Across the country, the housing market continues to produce neighborhoods and schools that are not economically diverse, according to Rusk.

During the last decade, neighborhoods in Boston, Springfield, Worcester and other Massachusetts metropolitan areas became more racially mixed, said Rusk. In a scale of zero to 100, with lower numbers reflecting less racial segregation, Boston scored 71 in 1990 and 66 in 2000. In 1970, Boston segregation was rated at 81.

In Springfield the racial segregation measured 68 in 1990 and 10 years later had dropped to 64, while in Worcester the rating dropped from 55 to 54. The only metropolitan area that experienced more racial segregation was Brockton, which had a 51 score 10 years ago, compared to 64 last year.

However, federal government statistics that are based on information provided by the state departments of education for all school districts in the late 1990s, show that economic segregation is high, said Rusk. In fact, Rusk said, it appears that economic barriers are replacing racial barriers.

In a scale of zero to 100, with lower numbers reflecting more economic diversity and higher numbers reflecting less, Boston had a 64 rating, Springfield and Worcester scored 58 and 61 respectively, and the Lawrence/Haverhill area had the biggest economic disparity measuring in at 70.

‘School Policy’
According to Rusk, there should be a focus on creating mixed-income and middle-class communities that help foster diverse school environments. That is unlike what’s been happening over the last few years, where much of the affordable housing has been built in urban areas with concentrations of low-income people, he said.

Some communities have been successful in creating economic diversity. To illustrate a successful housing policy, Rusk pointed to Montgomery County, Md., which has a mandatory inclusionary zoning law that requires builders to construct housing developments where 85 percent of the units are market-rate, 10 percent are sold to moderate-income people and the rest is sold to the local housing authorities which rent the units.

Rusk praised Montgomery County’s policy, saying that it has led to high-achieving schools with children from economically diverse families. In one Montgomery County housing development that Rusk studied, all the children – whether those living in the high-priced homes or the moderately-priced or rental housing units – were on the honor roll at one of the top schools in the country.

Pushing the point even further, Rusk said children learn from their peers and achieve better in schools that have children from families with a mix of incomes.

Housing policy is school policy, said Rusk.

But the kind of countywide and regional approaches seen in Montgomery County are tough to implement in Massachusetts, where each town and city has its own rules driving development and housing construction, according to some experts.

Rusk acknowledged that, saying, You’re a little box state … The state is broken up into little jurisdictions.

As each community comes up with its own particular rules, it can create barriers for lower-income people, said Peter Gagliardi, president of the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association and executive director of the Hampden/Hampshire Housing Partnership.

Gagliardi said Massachusetts is hamstrung when trying to come up with regional planning mechanisms because land use issues are exclusively controlled by cities and towns.

Even though the state has Chapter 40B – or so-called anti-snob zoning – laws that make it easier for developers to construct housing with affordable units in communities where less than 10 percent of the housing stock is affordable to low- and moderate-income people, experts maintain that hasn’t adequately addressed affordable housing issues.

In many ways, Massachusetts deserves a lot credit for 40B and for the many affordable housing initiatives, said Rusk. It’s just that clearly, it’s [Chapter 40B] not enough and it doesn’t reach low enough in the income scales.

Complicating matters is the fact that there is an inadequate supply of housing but many Bay State communities are still fighting development and trying to control growth. That drives prices even higher and limits the housing choices of people, which is detrimental to the overall economy, said Clark L. Ziegler, executive director of MHP.

Ziegler said some of Rusk’s comments regarding the importance of economic diversity in schools and neighborhoods echo what has been illustrated in other studies that show a correlation between communities’ property values and the test scores of students living in those communities.

For Ziegler, Rusk’s paper highlights the central question that has been looming. Are we really doing everything we can through our state policies to encourage diversity in our housing stock? he asked.

M. David Lee, vice president of Stull & Lee, a Boston-based architectural firm, said he’s always maintained that it’s more important to achieve economic diversity in neighborhoods, but that usually means racial diversity as well.

During the last few years, some of the traditionally lower-income communities in Massachusetts have begun to see more economic diversity because people are being priced out of other areas, he said.

In communities like Roxbury, where there is a bigger share of low-income housing, homeowners and longtime residents have sought more market-rate housing and housing that is affordable to working people, said Lee.

But in some communities, lower-income people, fearing gentrification and the resulting higher rents and home prices, do not want to see higher-income people moving into their neighborhoods.

Likewise, there are some wealthier communities that are not as accommodating to people with lower- and moderate-incomes, Lee said.

It may be that it’s working in both directions, he said.