We don't have to force anyone to live somewhere they don't want to live, but we can stop destroying black neighborhoods every time we want to build a new freeway and we can stop building neighborhoods that all but automatically exclude people of color. Neighborhoods can easily have housing available for all price points.
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Housing is an interesting topic-- and I have several professors in my family who specialize in housing studies (economics, trends, lending and zoning policies, etc), so I have more than a passing familiarity with the subject from our family discussions.
Yes, new neighborhoods can be engineered to reflect many price points. But by doing exactly that,
all the properties are
devalued. So that's a very big issue.
The other significant issue is that most people don't care at all what color, race, or income level their neighbors are
AS LONG AS the neighbors are polite, clean, neat, keep their properties well maintained, and live a law abiding lifestyle that does not negatively impact others.
Where most people have issues is in low cost properties, especially multi-family rental properties, that are not reserved for the elderly or disabled. With transient low income renters, comes crime, disruptions (such as loud music, frequent police calls, and loud visitors late into the night), and a disregard for keeping garbage picked up and personal items maintained. Renters in low income multi-family housing often have no commitment to the neighborhoods or properties, or their neighbors, so they "trash" the places, and vandalize other properties. Not all renters, of course-- but just a few of them can ruin a very nice neighborhood, and turn it into an unsafe and undesirable neighborhood. Devaluing all the properties.
HOA's often fight these "mixed income" integrations tooth and nail, not because they are inherently "racist", but because they simply don't want the crime and disruption that comes with volumes of low income renters. If you prefer, those that fight the mixed income neighborhoods are more
classist, than racist. The higher the income (and the higher the rent, or property value, or mortgage), the less likely the owner or renter will have behaviors that negatively impact everyone else. That's the unvarnished, "non-PC" truth.
So neighborhoods (or even individual apartment buildings in urban areas) can be engineered for mixed incomes, but what is needed most is some kind of screening method of new residents to keep the ill-behaved, future bad neighbors,
out. And that's not legal or "PC". So, they fight for 3 car garages to be required instead.
Mixed income neighborhoods will never work on a large scale, despite the ivory tower socialist/ communist fantasies of liberal scholars and urban planners. IMO.
