Breaking down Barriers to Educational Opportunities: Mitigating the Lingering Effects of Housing Redlining in D.C. Issue Brief No. 5243

During the 20th century, federally sanctioned housing "redlining" influenced the composition of neighborhoods in large cities across the country, including Washington, D.C. The term "redlining" came from the color-coded maps developed by the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) (on which mortgage lending under the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was partly based). The HOLC limited access to federally backed mortgages for home loans in the red-colored and lowest-grade neighborhoods described as "hazardous." This report presents: (1) How the federal housing authority shaped D.C.'s neighborhoods; (2) How 1930s discriminatory mortgage practices linger in D.C. school zones; (3) The FHA's lingering footprint on D.C. school boundaries; (4) Severing the link between housing and schooling in D.C.; and (5) D.C. families exercising choice.