Gentrification and Displacement: The Future

Like the racial covenants that remain in official records around California, housing patterns are entrenched. But as more people realize they will never be homeowners, renters are thinking about their rights and refusing to yield decision-making to owners and developers. Protests that broke out over the development of a transit plaza in Boyle Heights show a community demanding to be engaged in the redevelopment process. Similarly, the fate of a subsidized housing project in South Central L.A. shows the power of community groups to subvert market forces and attempts to redefine housing as a human right. While both successful, those working to reverse the devastating effects of racial and economic discrimination assert that “every neighborhood has to have a different solution, it is not one template that fits all.” Long-term solutions will require deploying a variety of strategies.