PAST ARTICLES AND EDITORIAL BOARDS Housing Segregation and Local Discretion
Philip D. Tegeler
J.L. & Pol'y 209 (1994)
The article examines President Bill Clinton's policy goal to promote desegregation in federal housing programs. The author analyses the means by which the systematic delegation of federal housing program administration to local administration has had the effect, unintended and otherwise, of, in fact, perpetuating housing segregation.

A patchwork of local Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) are charged with administering the federal programs. Due to imposed bureaucratic obstacles, federal policies on the funding of PHAs which create a vested interest for the PHA to retain their clients, and the local authorities desire to serve its existing constituencies (central city or suburban), the mobility of government- assisted housing clients remains largely restricted.

For the Clinton Administration's policy initiative to have an opportunity to reverse this longstanding pattern, the delegation and deference to local administrative units must be replaced by a regional or state level control.