Clarifications: Mayor's Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda report

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray's Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda report cites the Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project's research on racially restrictive covenants as the basis for its claim that "Seattle’s zoning has roots in racial and class exclusion and remains among the largest obstacles to realizing the City's goals for equity and affordability." This one sentence has in turn sparked a public debate in Seattle about whether single family zoning is inherently racist.

Here is the statement of the Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project on this matter:

First, we applaud the attention to Seattle’s history of segregation and the continuing problem of racial discrimination. Tragically, racism continues to shape housing opportunities and the composition of neighborhoods today. By linking the issues of racism and affordability, the report highlights two of the city’s most important challenges.

But it would be inappropriate for the Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project to speak for or against the specifics of the HALA proposals. We are a history project, not policy advocates. We were alarmed to see a July 21, 2015 article in the Seattle Times appear under the headline ”UW reacts to mayor’s single-family zoning, segregation comments.” We would never pretend to represent the views of University of Washington. Moreover, we had carefully stayed out of the media controversy surrounding HALA, with the exception of a short clarifying statement posted on our Facebook page. The reporter used one sentence of that statement and used it in a misleading way that seemed to suggest that we opposed the HALA report. That is incorrect.

Secondly, in the interest of historical accuracy we offer a couple of clarifying points.

• While the report was technically wrong in referring to “zoning based on race,” the distinction is pretty academic.  Unlike some cities, Seattle never enacted segregation zoning ordinances. This was probably a matter of timing. Racial zoning was disallowed by the US Supreme Court in 1917, just a few years after cities began experimenting with any kind of zoning laws. Segregationists then turned to deed restrictions, restrictive covenants, and campaigns of intimidation to keep African Americans, Asian Americans, and other designated populations out of “white neighborhoods.” These were the tactics that became common in Seattle and as we document with our database of 416 restrictive covenants, they shaped patterns of segregation that lasted through much of the 20th century.

• Homeownership is not the issue. Rental markets have been and continue to be twisted by racism. In days past, racially restrictive covenants placed in property deeds applied to rentals and home ownership alike. So did realtors' racist practices. So did bankers' redlining practices. They were not specific to single family zoned spaces— they covered nearly all residential housing in the region. Moreover, as the Seattle Office of Civil Rights has demonstrated in repeated investigations, racial discrimination remains a serious problem in the rental market. Many apartment building managers have been caught violating federal and local anti-discrimination laws, turning away or overcharging Black, Latino, Asian (and LGBTQ) prospective tenants. 

• Finally, it is instructive that even at the height of segregation, much of the Central District was zoned for single family residences. While denied access to other neighborhoods by the rigid rules of segregation, some African Americans and Asian Americans were able to purchase homes, albeit at artificially inflated prices. According to Quintard Taylor's classic study,  The Forging of a Black Community, Seattle's Central District had higher African American homeownership rates than most cities before the 1980s. And the dream of homeownership fueled campaigns for “Fair Housing,” the decades-long struggle to ban housing discrimination and open all neighborhoods to all peoples.

James Gregory and Trevor Griffey, Co-founders,
Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project
July 21, 2015

What's In Your Deed? The language of segregation still haunts Seattle. It lurks in the deeds of tens of thousands of homeowners living in neighborhoods outside of the Central Area and the International District. Look deep in the fine print. Many Queen Anne residents, for instance, have this clause in their deeds: "No person or persons of Asiatic, African or Negro blood, lineage, or extraction shall be permitted to occupy a portion of said property."

Racial deed restrictions became common after 1926 when the U.S. Supreme Court validated their use. The restrictions were an enforceable contract and an owner who violated them risked forfeiting the property. Many neighborhoods prohibited the sale or rental of property by Asian Americans and Jews as well as Blacks. [more]