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Support for this podcast comes from Unisys. Unisys is a global technology solutions company dedicated to helping people and organizations reach their next breakthrough.

They offer tools to help you run your business more efficiently, like systems integration, consulting services, application management and device management software.

Plus, Unisys applies specialized expertise to strengthen and transform teams and processes. To learn more, visit Unisys.com. That's UNISYS.com. Unisys, keep breaking through.

Hello and welcome to another episode of The Weeds. I'm John Quillin Hill.

Today, we'll try to answer the question. Can we use policy to actually end housing discrimination? And when I say that, I mean the policies that keep American neighborhoods pretty homogenous.

Even as the country becomes more and more diverse, most white people are still likely to live in a predominantly white neighborhood.

In fact, neighborhoods were more segregated in 2019 than they were in 1990. When you stop and think about it, where we live determines a lot about us.

It can dictate how long our commutists are preferred coffee shop, our friend circle.

But it's also a factor in more serious outcomes too. Like the quality of our education or our health.

The United States has a long and frankly troubling history when it comes to discriminatory housing practices.

The impact of practices like redlining are still evident in cities like Chicago. And the Department of Housing and Urban Development didn't officially extend protections to LGBTQ people

until 2021. The thing is, they're supposed to be a solution to all of this. In 1968, the Fair Housing Act was passed to directly address things like this.

But enforcement has been weakened, attempts to strengthen it have hit roadblocks. But now, the White House is stepping in. Earlier this month, the Biden administration took aim with a proposal to strengthen the Fair Housing Act.

Rachel Cohen is a senior policy reporter here at Fox. And she says this move is noteworthy.

So this new move is very important. It's sort of part of what Biden has said is part of his larger goal to fully implement the Fair Housing Act.

And it's largely considered necessary if the government is serious about actually enforcing the Fair Housing Act and desegregating housing.

The Fair Housing Act is one of the many pieces of civil rights legislation that was passed in the 1960s.

Basically, it's the big federal civil rights law to prevent housing discrimination in rental housing, in homes that people own, in mortgages, in housing assistance, sort of all housing related activities.

And in addition to sort of banning discrimination, another key part of it is this idea about sort of furthering fair housing and desegregating communities.

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