Date of Award

Spring 2022

Degree Type

Capstone - Open Access

First Advisor

Sheila McAdams

Abstract

Housing discrimination and affordability are ongoing issues in the United States; especially for marginalized populations like cisgender women, low-income families and individuals, and the transgender community. These three groups lack adequate protection and acknowledgment under the 1968 Fair Housing Act (FHA). In order to provide them with sufficient protection, the FHA must improve its level of inclusion and be updated and modernized to adapt to today’s society. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of enhancing the FHA, while discovering discriminatory practices under the FHA and the causes and solutions of affordable housing issues. With the use of intersectionality theory, this paper will not only disclose the interconnected causes of affordable housing issues among cisgender women, low-income families and individuals, and the transgender community, but also emphasize the ways in which affordable housing policy and the 1968 Fair Housing Act offer solutions to each other. As a way to compare past and current housing affordability solutions in the United States, affordable housing strategies in California, New York, Australia, and China will be examined. To conclude, possible amendments to the 1968 FHA and changes to affordable housing policy will be presented.

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