Inclusionary Housing

This article reports on a study of approximately 12,000 inclusionary zoning units built in Montgomery County, Maryland, and Suffolk County, New York, that analyzes the effect of inclusionary housing programs on racial and income integration and neighborhood change at the census tract level in these areas between 1980 and 2000. The study finds that these effects are dependent on the siting of the inclusionary units, the initial characteristics of the neighborhoods in which they are built, and the institutional framework of the inclusionary housing program. The article concludes that overall, inclusionary housing policies positively affected racial and income integration levels in these areas, but also had the potential to exacerbate existing concentrations of poverty and patterns of residential racial segregation.