Fair Housing: Asian and Latino/a Experiences,

Perceptions, and Strategies Fair Housing Vincent Reina and C laudia Aiken

This article uses the National Asian American Survey to explore issues of housing access and discrimination among Asians and Latino/as, and particularly how identity and heterogeneity within these two groups can lead to their underrepresentation in housing programs. Then, using Philadelphia as a case study, we draw on administrative data, interviews, and focus groups to show that both Asians and Latino/as are underrep- resented due to a range of linguistic, cultural, and structural barriers. These findings highlight the complex- ity of affirmatively furthering fair housing for America’s increasingly diverse population.

Keywords: fair housing, housing assistance, affordable housing, Asians, Latino/as

In the past two decades, America’s urban coun- temala, Colombia, and other Latin American ties have shifted from a majority White to a ma- nations (Flores 2017). The diversification of jority non-­White population (Parker et al. 2018). Asian and Latino/a Americans has critical im- Asians and Latino/as are the fastest growing plications for ensuring fair access to decent racial and ethnic minorities in metropolitan ar- housing. eas; their numbers have grown by 27 percent This analysis draws on data from the Na- and 19 percent, respectively, since 2010 (Frey tional Asian American Survey (NAAS) to ex- 2019). Jennifer Lee and Karthik Ramakrishnan plore the growing heterogeneity in housing (2021, this issue) find that in the case of Asians, ­access and needs, and perceptions of discrimi- a shift in national origins toward South and nation, among Asians and Latino/as. It sug- Southeast Asian has also resulted in “unprec- gests four hypotheses about how diversification edented diversity within the U.S. Asian popula- of identities and its implications for percep- tion.” Latino/a diversity in the United States is tions around government, discrimination, and also increasing as earlier cohorts of Puerto Ri- housing might affect participation in govern- can and Mexican migrants are joined by grow- ment housing programs. We test these hypoth- ing shares of residents from El Salvador, Gua- eses through a case study of Philadelphia,

Vincent Reina is assistant professor of city and regional planning at the University of Pennsylvania, United States. Claudia Aiken is director of the Housing Initiative at Penn, through PennPraxis, at the University of Pennsylvania, United States.

© 2021 Russell Sage Foundation. Reina, Vincent, and Claudia Aiken. 2021. “Fair Housing: Asian and Latino/a Experiences, Perceptions, and Strategies.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 7(2): 201–23. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2021.7.2.10. The authors acknowledge Will Gonzalez, Manuel Portillo, Fnu Lilianty, and Donna Backues for their assistance in organizing focus groups. Direct correspondence to: Vincent Reina at [email protected], 210 S. 34th St., 127 Meyerson Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States. Open Access Policy: RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences is an open access journal. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-­NonCommercial-­NoDerivs 3.0 Unported Li- cense. 202 asian americans and immigrant integration which is home to growing and diversifying of housing, in mortgage lending, and in the Asian and Latino/a minorities. An analysis of provision of housing assistance. Furthermore, aggregated administrative data from HUD, the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act strictly prohibits City of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia discrimination in any program or activity that Housing Authority (PHA) shows that although receives federal assistance from HUD. However, many newcomers to Philadelphia are income-­ more than fifty years after the passage of the eligible for housing assistance, the racial and Fair Housing Act, equal access to housing op- ethnic composition of households receiving portunities remains a distant goal for many housing assistance (such as rental vouchers, re- American cities. Contemporary research shows pair grants, and publicly subsidized units) has that despite antidiscriminatory lending regula- not reflected these demographic changes. Fi- tions, racial and ethnic minorities continue to nally, we use interviews with local service pro- face discrimination in the housing market that viders and other stakeholders, as well as focus cannot be explained by their incomes, credit groups with residents, to analyze inter- ­and in- scores, or other qualifications (Turner et al. tragroup differences in the experience and per- 2013). Beyond the private market, minorities ception of barriers to housing assistance and continue to face unequal access to housing re- how this diversity has shaped each communi- sources provided by governments, including ty’s participation in housing programs. subsidies, programs, and planning efforts (Hu- Philadelphia is a particularly useful case sock 2017; City of Savannah 2017). These issues study for two reasons. First, it has experienced were brought to the forefront of cities’ agendas recent growth in both Asian and Latino/a diver- in 2015 when HUD released a new rule requir- sity. Two decades ago, more than 85 percent of ing municipalities to “affirmatively further fair the population of Philadelphia identified as be- housing.” Municipalities were for the first time ing either non-Hispanic­ White or Black.1 Since given an enforceable obligation not only to pre- then, the Latino/a population has nearly dou- vent housing discrimination, but to overcome bled and the Asian community has grown by the barriers to housing opportunity that are the half. Both groups have diversified internally, in legacy of systemic disadvantage among racial, regard not only to national origin but also to ethnic, and other groups. language, socioeconomic status, and immigra- The Philadelphia AFH included a detailed tion status. Second, Philadelphia recently en- evaluation of local fair housing issues and a set gaged in a citywide conversation about fair of strategies to address them. The city part- housing. It was one of forty-nine­ cities to sub- nered with the Philadelphia Housing Authority mit an Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH) pur- to jointly map housing conditions across the suant to a 2015 mandate by the U.S. Department city, survey more than five thousand residents of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), about their experiences and perceptions, hold which has since been repealed by the Trump five focus groups with residents and three other administration. The AFH affords us a window meetings with PHA tenants, and repeatedly in- into the perceptions of discrimination and at- vite stakeholders to share their ideas and con- titudes toward government among Asian and cerns (City of Philadelphia 2016). One of the Latino/a residents, which have critical implica- most important findings was the concern tions for their participation in housing assis- among Philadelphia’s Asian and Latino/a pop- tance programs. ulations that they were disproportionately less Discrimination in housing markets is illegal. likely to benefit from local and federal housing The Fair Housing Act, passed in 1968 and subsidy programs. The plan that was produced amended in 1988, forbids discrimination on the suggested but did not conclusively identify why basis of race, religion, sex, national origin, dis- Asian and Latino/a residents are underrepre- ability, and familial status in the sale and rental sented in government housing assistance pro-

1. The first year in which the combined non-­Hispanic White and Black population dropped below 80 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey five-­year estimates, is 2010. In 2009, 41.91 percent of Philadelphians were non-­Hispanic Black and 39.73 percent were non-Hispanic­ White (2017).

rsf: the russell sage foundation journal of the social sciences fair housing 203 grams. The answer is crucial to understanding grant assimilation, such as duration of U.S. res- which strategies may be most successful in pro- idence” (2013, 186). viding assistance to Asian and Latino/a resi- Poverty and immigration can explain some dents who struggle to access, maintain, or af- of the disadvantages that Latino/as and Asians ford housing. face in the housing market, but not all. Some By combining an analysis of NAAS data with are the result of historic and continuing dis- a quantitative and qualitative case study of crimination. Both Asians and Latino/as are told Philadelphia, we find that Asian and Latino/a about and shown fewer housing units than residents are indeed underrepresented in White homeseekers who are identical in every most housing programs, and that this lack of respect other than race or ethnicity (Turner et representation is a function of complex lin- al. 2013). Such steering mechanisms segregate guistic, cultural, structural, and legal barriers. Latino/a and Asian households into poor-­ Although it would be easy to lay the blame on quality housing and low-­opportunity neighbor- local authorities, implementing meaningful hoods. For example, John Betancur (1996) de- fair housing policies often exceeds the capac- scribes how, when Mexicans first moved to ity and resources of both local government Chicago, landlords and realtors steered them agencies and of the community organizations to the poorest areas; by creating these clusters with which they partner, and is further of artificial scarcity, landlords were then able thwarted by a lack of federal investment in this to charge higher rents. In some cases, local gov- capacity. ernments have reinforced the segregation of Latino/a and Asian households through the se- Literature lective enforcement of zoning ordinances and Studies show that Latino/as and Asian Ameri- building codes, and by adhering to restrictive cans across the United States face significant definitions of what constitutes a family that can challenges in accessing affordable and ade- legally occupy a single-­family home (Bender quate housing. Some of these challenges stem 2010). Both populations also face discrimina- from poverty; both Latino/as and Asians are tion in mortgage lending. Asians as a group are more likely to live in poverty than non-Hispanic­ more likely than non-Hispanic­ Whites to be de- Whites.2 We know that the lowest-­income nied a mortgage, even controlling for credit households tend to have the highest housing scores and other factors; in addition, certain costs relative to their incomes and experience Asian subgroups, such as Taiwanese, Hmong, high rates of eviction and housing insecurity and Koreans, have especially high mortgage de- (Lew 2016). Immigrants face special disadvan- nial rates, and others, such as Bangladeshi, In- tages in the housing market as well. Their lim- donesians, and Cambodians, pay especially ited English proficiency or ignorance of their high prices (Courchane, Darolia, and Gailey rights as tenants exposes them to exploitation 2015). Latino/as, too, have disproportionately at the hands of unscrupulous landlords. Refu- high mortgage denial rates and are signifi- gees are especially vulnerable; as a result, they cantly more likely than non-Hispanic­ Whites to tend to remain in rental housing for long peri- be given high-­cost loans (Faber 2018). More- ods—often their entire lives (Carter and Vitiello over, Latino/as as well as some Asian groups 2011). Legal status also plays an important role have been targeted by predatory lenders for in the housing challenges of immigrants. Eliz- subprime loans, contributing to higher mort- abeth McConnell finds that unauthorized gage default and foreclosure rates following the Latino/a immigrants “experience persistent housing crisis of 2007 (Reid et al. 2017; Anacker and unexplained disadvantages” in terms of 2019). housing cost burdens and that “this ‘penalty’ The challenges that confront Latino/as and for unauthorized Latino/a immigrants persists Asians in accessing housing are not confined even after controlling for indicators of immi- to the private market. They extend to the very

2. In 2018, 12 percent of Asians and 21 percent of Latino/as had incomes below the federal poverty threshold, versus 10 percent of non-Hispanic­ Whites (U.S. Census Bureau 2017).

rsf: the russell sage foundation journal of the social sciences 204 asian americans and immigrant integration government programs designed to remedy the dents by omission: they fail to site subsidized private market’s failure to provide affordable, housing in neighborhoods where Latino/as and adequate housing. At the national level, both Asians live, do not address language barriers, Asian and Latino/a Americans participate in or do not market their programs to Latino/a housing assistance programs at disproportion- and Asian communities (Alvarez 1996; Troche-­ ately low rates. American Community Survey Rodriguez 2009). Latino/a activists have suc- (ACS) Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) cessfully sued local and federal housing assis- files from 2018 show that 12 percent of Asian tance providers for discrimination on multiple Americans as a whole live below the poverty occasions. In 1995, a coalition of housing advo- line, with shares being higher among some cates called Latinos United won additional subgroups such as Cambodians (16 percent). housing vouchers and voucher counseling for About 21 percent of Latino/as are impoverished, Latino/a residents in the settlement of a class and rates are still higher among groups such as action lawsuit against the Chicago Housing Au- Puerto Ricans and Guatemalans (23 and 27 per- thority and HUD for discriminatory site selec- cent, respectively). As many as 37 percent of tion and program administration (Alvarez Asians and 45 percent of Latino/as are housing 1996). More recently, HUD settled a case against cost burdened, meaning that they pay more the Housing Authority of the City of Hazleton than 30 percent of their income for housing on behalf of six Latino/a families who had been costs. Yet Asians make up only 4 percent of denied limited English-­proficiency services households assisted by HUD programs; the (Pennsylvania Legal Aid 2015). Asian Ameri- share is even lower among specific programs, cans, perhaps because they are more divided such as public housing and housing choice than Latino/as by class and language, have not vouchers (3 percent each). Latino/as are better made the same demands for fair housing as- represented at 19 percent of all HUD-­assisted sistance. In 1990s-­era San Francisco, where households but underserved by specific pro- Asians were overwhelmingly segregated into grams, including Project-Based­ Section 8 and two of twenty-four­ public housing projects, the Section 202/PRAC, where they make up 16 and Asian Law Caucus initiated a series of lawsuits 15 percent of households, respectively (HUD to force integration and improve housing con- 2019a). ditions (Ancheta 2006). Examples of Asian re- In cities across America, Latino/as and cipients of local and federal housing assistance Asians are less likely to receive housing assis- organizing for better conditions are numerous. tance from public sources than similar non-­ However, we are unable to discover any in- Hispanic Whites (Husock 2017; City of Savan- stances of Asian individuals or organizations nah 2017). Sometimes the barriers to program suing the government for fair access to housing participation are explicit, such as rules that assistance programs. require proof of legal immigration. HUD cur- Perceptions of government, attitudes of ac- rently reduces assistance to households based cepting government assistance, and awareness on the number of household members who are of government discrimination may also play a unauthorized immigrants; a rule proposed by role in inequitable Asian and Latino/a partici- the Trump administration would prohibit giv- pation in housing programs. The literature on ing any federal housing assistance to such this topic, however, is slight. The historian “mixed families” (HUD 2019b). This rule would Charlotte Brooks (2009, 92) recounts how in clearly disadvantage Latino/a households. Pro- 1930s San Francisco, Chinese Americans were gram rules that favor the construction or sub- torn between fears that their communities sidy of one-­ to two-­bedroom units disadvan- would become dependent on public assistance tage both Asians and Latino/as, who are more made available through the New Deal and likely to live with extended or multigenera- hopes that government intervention could play tional families (Zonta 2016; Cohn and Passel a positive role in Chinatown. It is unclear how 2018). these attitudes have evolved or how they differ In other cases, housing authorities have dis- among Asian subgroups. Studies of present-­day criminated against Latino/a and Asian resi- underuse of external assistance among Asian

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Americans often cite the “collectivistic” or self-­ housing assistance programs. We analyze ag- reliant orientation of Asian American cultures gregated administrative data from the U.S. De- (Chen, Jo, and Donnell 2004; Crystal 1989). The partment of Housing and Urban Develop - NAAS, which includes questions related to per- ment, the City of Philadelphia, and the PHA ceptions of government and discrimination, to ascertain housing program participation can help substantiate or contest these claims— rates by race and ethnicity and compare them particularly when combined with rich local in- to the levels of need among Asian and Latino/a terview data. Philadelphians according to census data.3 Use rates are constructed by dividing the number Methods of Asian and Latino/a participants in a given We use weighted data from the 2008 NAAS and program by the total number of participants from the pre-­ and post-­election 2016 NAAS to for whom race or ethnicity is known; rates of understand Asians’ and Latino/as’ experience need are constructed by dividing the number with housing assistance. These data, com- of Asian and Latino/a Philadelphians living bined with existing literature, frame four hy- below the federal poverty line by the total potheses about why these two groups are un- number of impoverished Philadelphians.4 We derrepresented in housing assistance use a paired t-­test of means to ascertain programs and what might explain the differ- whether the need for and use of assistance are ence between them. The hypotheses are then statistically similar or different. We also use highlighted in our case study of Philadelphia. correspondence and interviews with city and Combining national and local analyses en- housing authority officials to describe what ables us to use broad, national findings to policies and practices govern local govern- frame the more granular analysis required to ment housing outreach to Asian and Latino/a fully understand issues of housing discrimina- residents. tion and use of government services. This is an We complement this descriptive analysis important application of surveys like NAAS with twenty-­two interviews with twenty-­five and highlights the necessity of studying hous- stakeholders and four focus groups with thirty-­ ing within the context of a broader set of pub- three residents meant to test our hypotheses lic policy issues. about why Asians and Latino/as are underrep- For the Philadelphia study, we offer a brief resented in government housing assistance overview of how the city’s Asian and Latino/a programs in Philadelphia (see tables 1 and 2). communities have grown and diversified over We interviewed persons who occupy leadership time and how this has affected their housing positions in housing-related­ nonprofit organi- needs before exploring the extent to which zations that specifically serve Latino/a or Asian Asians and Latino/a residents of Philadelphia communities, are fair housing advocates or are currently underrepresented in government housing service providers, or are leaders in

3. Administrative data include HUD’s publicly available Picture of Subsidized Households for the years from 2014 through 2017; the City of Philadelphia’s Division of Housing and Community Development Quarterly Production Reports for the same period, which were shared with us by division staff; 2018 program usage data from the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Homeless Services (OHS) and the Department of Behavioral Health and Intel- lectual Disability Services, which were shared with us by OHS staff; and the Philadelphia Housing Authority’s 2017 Moving to Work Annual Report, which is publicly available.

4. In this analysis, we use poverty as a proxy for government housing program eligibility. In reality, the eligibility criteria are more complex. Most determine eligibility based on a family’s income as a share of area median in- come, which is set by HUD for each county or metropolitan area. Assistance is often limited to families at or below 60 or 80 percent of area median income (AMI) and prioritized to those at or below 30 percent of AMI. In Philadelphia, families of four meet this criterion if they earned no more than $27,050 in 2019. Meanwhile, the poverty threshold for a family of four is still lower at $26,370. Thus, if the share of the impoverished who are Asian outweighs the share of housing program participants who are Asian, it is almost certain that Asian Americans are underserved by these programs.

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Table 1. Interviews and Correspondence, 2019–2020

Organization or Community Type Interviewees or Correspondents

Asian-serving nonprofits 7 Asian community leaders 4 Latino/a-serving nonprofits 3 Latino/a community leaders 2 Fair housing and housing service organizations 9 Government agencies 7

Source: Authors’ calculations.

Table 2. Focus Groups, 2019–2020

Community Number of Participants

Latino/a 8 Latino/a 12 Asian 4 Asian 9

Source: Authors’ calculations.

Asian or Latino/a communities.5 Interviewees stand why Asians, and by extension Latino/as, answered questions about barriers their con- continue to be underrepresented in housing as- stituents face to access affordable housing and sistance programs. First, diversity within the housing assistance and how they cope with Asian American population nationally is consid- these barriers. Four focus groups—two in Span- erable. Some of the larger subgroups include ish, one in Mandarin, and one in English—were those of Chinese (23 percent of all Asian Ameri- conducted with Asian and Latino/a Philadel- cans, according to census data), Vietnamese (10 phians representing a broad cross section of percent), or Cambodian origin (1.5 percent). ethnicities, national origins, ages, and socio- These three groups differ significantly in terms economic characteristics; we used these to of age, household income, educational attain- identify community perceptions of barriers to ment, tenure, household composition, and housing assistance.6 English proficiency. Combined, weighted pre-­ and post-­election 2016 NAAS data show that National Analysis Chinese Americans tend to be older than Viet- The National Asian American Survey data reveal namese or Cambodian Americans and at least several important realities that help us under- twice as likely to have a household income

5. An initial cohort of interviewees was identified because of their participation in Philadelphia’s affirmatively furthering fair housing process. Then snowball sampling was used to identify additional interviewees, since organizations offering housing services are often aware of one another. Interviews were primarily in person and typically lasted thirty to forty-­five minutes. Interviews were semi-structured,­ and interviewees were encouraged to expand on responses that were particularly interesting or surprising. Interviews were audio recorded and later analyzed thematically.

6. Focus group participants were recruited by housing service providers among their constituents or by com- munity leaders with strong ties to a particular community. Focus group participants were each compensated with a $10 gift card. The authors facilitated these focus groups with the assistance of Spanish- ­and Mandarin-­ speaking translators. Some questions were posed to the group at large with discussion encouraged; in other cases, when it was desirable to determine the share of participants who shared a certain perception or experi- ence, participants were each asked to either respond individually or “pass.” The sessions, which lasted an hour each, were audio recorded and later analyzed thematically.

rsf: the russell sage foundation journal of the social sciences fair housing 207 above $125,000. More than half of Chinese Amer- average NAAS respondent. But if the diversity icans have received a college degree, versus 39 among Asians is any indication, diversity is percent of Vietnamese and only 23 percent of likely among Latino/a subgroups as well.8 Inter- Cambodian Americans. Cambodian Americans, nal diversity could plausibly lead to underrep- more than half of whom have a household in- resentation in housing programs for other rea- come below $50,000, are much more likely than sons, including the difficulty of distributing aid the average Asian American to rent their home to persons who speak a wide variety of lan- (50 percent versus 36 percent). According to the guages or dialects, or have varied immigration 2016 post-­election NAAS, Cambodian Americans statuses or social norms. are more likely than Chinese or Vietnamese The 2008 NAAS allows us to look at change Americans to live alone or in a multigenerational in key sociodemographic indicators for Asian household. Approximately 68 percent speak only Americans over time. Based on weighted survey a little English or none at all, versus 56 percent results, more Asian Americans were renting of Vietnamese and 50 percent of Chinese Amer- their homes in 2016 than in 2008 (by an increase icans (Ramakrishnan et al. 2018, 2017).7 of 6 percentage points). The share of Asian This internal diversity suggests a first hy- Americans with household incomes under pothesis as to why Asian Americans might be $50,000 greatly increased, from 25 percent to 44 underrepresented in housing assistance pro- percent. Meanwhile, the share earning a col- grams: relatively high incomes and rates of lege degree decreased by 11 percentage points. homeownership for Asians as a whole disguise The share reporting that they speak no or little the level of need among subgroups and indi- English remained constant at about 52 percent. viduals. This could result in housing assistance At the same time, census data show that the being targeted to racial or ethnic groups that three largest Asian national-­origin groups are more uniformly disadvantaged. As Lucas (Asian Indian, Chinese, and Filipino) made up Drouhot and Filiz Garip (2021, this issue) point a slowly declining share of all Asians, whereas out, it is routine in statistical analysis to aggre- smaller subgroups such as Bangladeshi, Bhu- gate individuals into racial and ethnic groups, tanese, and Burmese Americans grew. These which obscures within-­group socioeconomic shifts lead to our second hypothesis for under- diversity and leads to misguided conclusions. representation, namely, that the Asian Ameri- Such a hypothesis would not seem to apply to can population’s diversity has increased, and Latino/as, however. As a group, they are less its need and eligibility for housing assistance likely to own their homes, more likely to have has grown, even as the availability of housing household incomes below $50,000, much less assistance has decreased. This could easily be likely to have received college degrees, and the case for Latino/as well, though the 2008 much less likely to speak English proficiently NAAS includes only Asian respondents (Ramak- than either the average Asian American or the rishnan et al. 2012).

7. The NAAS, despite its relatively small sample size, tracks fairly closely with the Public Use Microsample of American Community Survey data (U.S. Census Bureau 2017). According to 2018 PUMS results, 13 percent of Chinese Americans are age sixty-­five or older, versus 11 percent of Vietnamese and 8 percent of Cambodian Americans. Chinese Americans’ average household income is above $110,000, against $88,455 and $76,468 for Vietnamese and Cambodian Americans, respectively. In line with NAAS data, PUMS data show that Cambodian American households are more likely to rent (at 46 percent) than Vietnamese or Chinese ones (34 and 37 percent of whom are renters). Cambodian American households are likely to be large (averaging 3.4 persons) and mul- tigenerational (70 percent of households).

8. Data in the 2014–2018 ACS PUMS support this conclusion. Guatemalans, who are twice as likely as Mexicans to be noncitizens, have higher rates of poverty, are more likely to be renters, and are much more likely to belong to a multigenerational or multifamily household than either Puerto Ricans or Mexicans. The average Guatema- lan American household’s income is only $57,610, versus $65,056 for the average Latino/a household. Still, the diversity among Latino/a subgroups is less pronounced; for example, the spread in average income among major Latino/a subgroups is a fifth that of major Asian subgroups.

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Table 3. Perceptions of Discrimination and Government, 2016

All Question Americans Asians Chinese Vietnamese Cambodians Latino/as

In the average month, do you receive 23 21 21 15 16 23 poorer service than other people at restaurants or stores? In the average month, do people act as if 16 28 27 24 19 39 you don’t speak English? In the average month, do people act as if 14 8 6 4 7 18 they are afraid of you? In the average month, do people act as if 17 8 6 5 8 24 they think you are dishonest? Do you think you have ever been unfairly 9 5 3 3 7 10 prevented from moving into a neighborhood because the landlord or a realtor refused to sell or rent you a house or apartment? Have you ever moved into a neighborhood 15 9 7 9 14 18 where neighbors made life difficult for you or your family? Agree or agree strongly that “public 67 81 78 87 67 65 officials don’t care much what people like me think”

Source: Ramakrishnan et al. 2017. Note: Numbers in percentages.

Perhaps most interestingly, the NAAS in- whom reported that they had been unfairly pre- cludes a series of questions about perceptions vented from buying or renting a home, 18 per- of discrimination (in the 2016 post-­election cent of whom had been discriminated against wave) and of government (in the 2016 pre-­ by neighbors, and 39 percent of whom had been election wave) (see table 3). Asian respondents treated as if they did not speak English in the were unlikely to report that they had ever been average month. “unfairly prevented from moving into a neigh- These results suggest several possibilities. borhood because the landlord or a realtor re- First is that both Asians and Latino/as experi- fused to sell or rent [them] a house or apart- ence less direct housing discrimination than ment” (5 percent) or that people had treated they do bureaucratic discrimination—that is, them as if they thought they were frightening poorer service—but that the latter nevertheless or dishonest (8 percent each). They were much leads them to be underserved by housing as- more likely to report that, in the average month, sistance programs, which violates fair housing they had received poorer service than other cus- principles. Second, it suggests that Latino/a tomers at restaurants and stores (21 percent) or Americans either experience more discrimina- that people had acted as if the respondent did tion than Asian Americans, including even dis- not speak English (28 percent). Asian sub - advantaged subgroups like Cambodian Ameri- groups certainly show variation, with Cambo- cans, or that they are more likely to perceive dian Americans more likely than others to have such discrimination. If the former is true, we reported discrimination at the hands of a land- might expect Latino/as to be even less repre- lord, a realtor, or their neighbors. But even sented in housing assistance programs than Cambodians were far less likely to feel discrim- Asians. If the latter is, Latino/as might also be inated against than Latino/as, 10 percent of more likely than Asians to mount concerted

rsf: the russell sage foundation journal of the social sciences fair housing 209 education or advocacy efforts, potentially en- nam, as well as of wealthier Fujianese immi- abling them to win greater representation in grants (Lee 1994). Koreans also arrived in large housing assistance programs than they other- numbers beginning in the 1980s, most moving wise would. A NAAS pre-­election question asked directly to the suburbs (Lee 1994). An important respondents to evaluate whether “public offi- share of Asian newcomers (about 12 percent) cials don’t care much what people like me have arrived as refugees; the Philadelphia think.” Asian Americans overwhelmingly metro resettled a total of 18,100 refugees be- agreed or strongly agreed with this statement tween 1990 and 1999 (Singer and Wilson 2006). (81 percent); two-thirds­ (65 percent) of Latino/a The first wave of refugees to Philadelphia were Americans did. These feelings toward govern- Vietnamese, who were resettled in West and ment might translate into a low rate of govern- South Philadelphia beginning in the 1970s. ment program use for both groups, but a They were followed by Cambodians and Lao- slightly higher rate for Latino/a residents than tians (Vitiello and Acolin 2017). More recently, Asians. Bhutanese and Burmese refugees have arrived The NAAS is an evolving tool. In 2008, it in- and begun to form their own networks of as- cluded no other races or ethnicities than sociations (McWilliams and Bonet 2015). Ac- Asians. By 2016, it had added White, Latino/a, cording to the 2014–2018 ACS estimates, Phila- and Black respondents, allowing for compari- delphians with Chinese origins now make up son across race and ethnicity. The sample size one-­third of Asians in the city, the other two-­ has also grown over time, from 5,159 respon- thirds divided principally between Indians (20 dents in 2008 to 11,235 in 2016. Finally, the ca- percent), Vietnamese (13 percent), Cambodians pacity to group respondents by ancestry and (8 percent), Koreans (6 percent), and Filipinos national origin has become more sophisti- (5 percent).9 cated. But NAAS does not yet allow for much Housing experiences differ sharply along geographic granularity, which makes it chal- lines of national origin and class. For instance, lenging to explore the nuanced, hyperlocal re- many of Philadelphia’s Cantonese families lationship between racial diversity and housing have moved out of Chinatown and into middle-­ needs and perceptions. By using a local case class suburbs, joining both professional-­class study, however, we can test hypotheses sug- Koreans and Indians and the wealthier Chi- gested at a national level and delve more deeply nese immigrants who settle in the suburbs di- into the nuanced barriers to housing assistance rectly. Those who remain behind in Chinatown that Asian and Latino/a Americans face. tend to be poorer and—as low-­income renters in a neighborhood with rapidly appreciating Asian and Latino/a Communities land values—have housing experiences that in Philadelphia are “sensibly different from those of China- Any attempt to understand the underrepresen- town immigrants in the suburbs” (Vitiello and tation of Asians and Latino/as in Philadelphia’s Acolin 2017, 199). The Philadelphia Chinatown housing programs must first acknowledge the Development Corporation (PCDC), founded in enormous diversity among these groups as well 1969, has developed more than 225 units of as the long history of discrimination against both subsidized and market-­rate housing in Asians and Latino/a Philadelphians in provi- Chinatown in an effort to anchor the Chinese sion of housing resources. Philadelphia’s Asian community and prevent displacement (Vitiello population has grown much more diverse over 2014; Greco 2016). But ever-­higher land prices time. The founders of Philadelphia’s China- have stalled housing production in recent town were Cantonese-­speaking Chinese from years, and PCDC has adapted to serve an in- Guangdong province (Lee 1994). They have creasingly geographically scattered constitu- been joined by waves of ethnically Chinese im- ency (Vitiello and Acolin 2017). This situation migrants from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Viet- is far from unique to Philadelphia; most Asian

9. Pakistani, Indonesian, Bangladeshi, Japanese, Laotian, Taiwanese, Thai, Burmese, and Bhutanese Americans each make up less than 3 percent of Philadelphia’s Asian population (U.S. Census Bureau 2017).

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Americans now live in the suburbs and they in Philadelphia from White working-­class Kens- fact make up the “fastest growing of all racial ington. These neighborhoods have been char- minority groups in the U.S. suburbs today” acterized by high levels of renter-ship,­ poor ac- (Lung-­Amam 2017, 5). cess to transportation, and low levels of Meanwhile, the Southeast Asian commu- investment and access to credit (Whalen 2001, nity, whose original members arrived as refu- 225–26). But concentration (combined with sys- gees, continues to face challenges of poverty tematic deprivation) may also have helped the and economic exclusion rooted in the resettle- Puerto Rican community to form the network ment experience. Tram Nguyen (2001) writes of high-­capacity community development and that when Philadelphia was designated as a re- social service nonprofits it has today; organiza- settlement area in the 1980s, “almost overnight, tions such as Associaciòn Puertorriqueños en hundreds of Vietnamese and Cambodians Marcha (APM), Nueva Esperanza, Congreso, moved into the inner-­city neighborhood of and Concilio have developed hundreds of af- West Philly. . . . Agencies that got paid per cap- fordable housing units and offer a wide array ita for resettling refugees set up arrangements of housing counseling, financial literacy, and with slumlords to house as many families as other services (Axelrod et al. 2018). quickly as possible.” Having fled their home The largest recent increase in the foreign-­ countries without wealth or preparation, and born population has been among Mexicans. then having been resettled in neighborhoods Although “scarcely a presence prior to 1990,” where they are “culturally and linguistically iso- Mexicans grew to number six thousand by 2000 lated,” Southeast Asians in Philadelphia have and doubled to twelve thousand by 2005 not enjoyed the same upward mobility as other (Singer et al. 2008; Stern, Seifert, and Vitiello Asian immigrants (G. Nguyen et al. 2011). Al- 2008). Mexicans did not join the Puerto Rican though some Vietnamese families have suc- community as Dominicans and Jamaicans ceeded in moving to middle-­class suburbs, have done; instead, they formed a distinct com- Cambodians have “largely remained in poverty munity in South Philadelphia, which is more in the inner city, mostly in South and Southwest convenient to the Center City restaurant indus- Philadelphia” (Vitiello and Acolin 2017, 201). try as well as to the manufacturing and distri- Unfortunately, the latest cohorts of Southeast bution hubs near the Philadelphia Interna- Asian refugees, displaced from their home tional Airport, and in South Jersey (Singer et countries of Burma and Bhutan by ethnic al. 2008). South Philadelphia also had the ad- cleansing, face much the same challenges. In- vantage of a cheap, under-­the-table­ rental mar- deed, because of federal funding cuts, Philadel- ket. But as rents in the neighborhood increase, phia resettlement agencies are now even more Mexican immigrants are increasingly dis- restricted in the housing and case management placed to areas in North Philadelphia and Up- services they provide (McWilliams and Bonet per Darby.11 2015). In Philadelphia, questions of fair access to Philadelphia’s Latino/a community is pre- housing assistance for Asians and Latino/as dominantly Puerto Rican (60 percent), but it are long-­standing. In the 1950s, as the first increasingly includes Dominicans (12 percent), waves of Puerto Ricans arrived in Philadelphia, Mexicans (8 percent), and Central (7 percent) they competed with Blacks for the limited and South Americans (6 percent) as well. 10 housing options available in predominantly Puerto Ricans were the first to arrive en masse, Black neighborhoods (Ribeiro 2013). Later beginning in the late 1940s. Carmen Whalen waves of Asian and Latino/a immigrants have (2001) recounts how redlining and other dis- arrived in Philadelphia too late to access many criminatory practices compressed Puerto Ri- housing assistance resources. Federal funding cans into neighborhoods buffering Black North for housing authorities has plummeted since

10. Cubans once made up a larger share of Latino/a Philadelphians, but now make up only 2 percent (U.S. Cen- sus Bureau 2017).

11. Carlos Pascual-­Sanchez, personal interview, September 6, 2019, Puentes de Salud.

rsf: the russell sage foundation journal of the social sciences fair housing 211 the 1980s, when President Reagan cut HUD’s though 24 percent of Asian Philadelphians are budget authority by more than 70 percent. in poverty, the share is closer to 27 percent for PHA’s waitlists for public housing and vouch- Chinese residents. Southeast Asian groups, ers are closed indefinitely; they last opened possibly even more impoverished, are too small briefly in 2013 and 2010, respectively. HUD’s a sample to yield accurate poverty measures. Community Development Block Grant, which Meanwhile, we know that Latino/a Philadel- supports a wide range of municipal activities phians as a whole are disproportionately poor; including affordable housing construction, as- they make up only 15 percent of the population sistance, and rehab, has seen repeated funding for whom poverty status is known but 22 per- cuts as well; the program now provides less cent of those living below the federal poverty than half the funding it did in 1995 (Theodos, line. These rates mean that Latino/a Philadel- Stacy, and Ho 2017). Despite shrinking re - phians as well as members of some Asian sources and increasing need, PHA and the city groups are less able to afford adequate housing made some efforts to expand housing assis- than the average Philadelphian. tance to Asian and Latino/a communities dur- Beyond poverty, census surveys suggest ing this period. For example, in the 1980s and other symptoms of housing challenges. Asians 1990s, the city worked with PCDC to finance are equally likely to be renters, at 48 percent, affordable housing for Chinatown residents and Latino/as are more likely to rent, at 58 per- (HUD 1999). cent, than Philadelphians overall. Thomas Carter and Domenic Vitiello report that immi- Housing Needs in Philadelphia’s grants who are “stuck” in the rental market are Asian and Latino/a Communities more vulnerable to discrimination and housing According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, ap- insecurity (2011). Both Asian and Latino/a proximately 112,600 Asians live in Philadelphia households are twice as likely as the average today, about 7 percent of the total city popula- Philadelphia household to have more than one tion (2017). This is a dramatic increase over occupant per room, at 8 percent and 5 percent 1980, when the official count was below twenty of households, respectively. This can be par- thousand (1 percent of the population). Phila- tially attributed to the propensity for forming delphia’s Latino/a population is larger than the larger and multigenerational households, Asian minority and has grown significantly in around 50 percent of Latino/a and Asian house- the last forty years—from about sixty-four­ thou- holds in Philadelphia being multigenerational, sand (less than 4 percent of the population) to versus 38 percent of households overall. How- nearly 222,000 (14 percent). We should note that ever, it may also indicate that households dou- the accuracy of these figures is open to ques- ble up to afford their housing. The classic mea- tion. Researchers believe that in the 1980s and sure of housing affordability is housing cost 1990s, the census undercounted both Asians burden: the ratio of a household’s monthly and Latino/as. Asian ethnic organizations con- housing costs to its income. PUMS data suggest ducting their own population counts have ar- that more than a quarter (27 percent) of Asian rived at much higher combined estimates (Lee households and more than one-­third (36 per- 1994). Similarly, the Latino/a community as- cent) of Latino/a households in Philadelphia sessed its real population in 1990 to be greater are severely housing cost burdened, meaning than 120,000, whereas the decennial census put that they devote more than half of their income it at only around eighty-­nine thousand (Goode to housing costs. These are very similar to the and Schneider 1994). city’s overall rate of severe housing cost burden As of 2018, roughly 7 percent of Philadel- (27 percent). But Latino/a households, as well phians living below the federal poverty line as some Asian households (Cambodians and were Asian—which is the same as the Asian Vietnamese, in particular) tend to occupy units share of the overall population of Philadelphia. with rents and ownership costs well below aver- This statistic obscures higher levels of poverty age, despite their larger family sizes, indicating among some Asian ethnic groups. ACS PUMS that they may be trading quality for affordabil- estimates from 2014 to 2018 suggest that al- ity.

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Table 4. Housing Assistance Programs: Average Annual Usage Rates (2014–2017) Versus Poverty Population (2013–2017)

Significantly Percentage Significantly Units Percentage Under­ Latino/a Under­ Program Served Asian Users represented Users represented

Housing counseling 11,582 2.2 * 17.7 * Settlement grants 208 2.2 * 38.5 Heater hotline 4,013 0.1 * 9.7 * Basic systems repair 1,052 0.7 * 11.5 * Adaptive modifications 96 1.6 * 11 * Weatherization assistance 667 0 * 2.6 *

Source: Authors’ tabulation based on Division of Housing and Community Development Quarterly Pro- duction Reports, 2014–2017; U.S. Census Bureau 2017. *p < .01

Housing Assistance lic housing or housing vouchers in Philadel- Programs in Philadelphia phia were Asian (PHA 2017). Both Asians and Latino/as are underrepre- Income-­eligible Latino/a Philadelphians, sented in most of Philadelphia’s housing pro- for their part, are significantly underrepre- grams relative to their share of the poverty pop- sented in all city-­operated housing programs ulation (7 percent and 22 percent, respectively). except the Settlement Assistance Grants Pro- Running a simple t-­test, we find that Asians gram (a program that provides up to $500 in who are income-­eligible to receive housing as- down payment and closing cost assistance to sistance are significantly underrepresented new, low-­income homebuyers). Like Asians, (p < .01) in all of the major housing assistance they are most underrepresented in the Weath- programs offered by the City of Philadelphia erization Assistance Program, which serves (see table 4). The highest degree of underrep- almost exclusively African American house- resentation occurs in the Weatherization As- holds (see table 4). Latino/a households are sistance Program, which provides free home also underrepresented in PHA housing pro- energy efficiency improvements to low-­income grams. Only 6 percent of all HUD-­subsidized homeowners and renters: it did not serve a sin- households are Latino/a. Fewer than 2 percent gle Asian household between 2014 and 2017. of public housing residents report Spanish as Asians are also significantly underrepresented their primary language, and as of 2016, only in the PHA’s two largest housing programs: eighteen of Philadelphia’s nearly nineteen conventional public housing and the housing thousand housing choice voucher recipients choice voucher program (see table 5). Despite spoke Spanish at home.12 Furthermore, only proportional representation in two smaller 9 percent of the current waitlisted applicants programs (the Section 202 program for senior for public housing and housing vouchers housing and the Project-­Based Section 8 pro- identify as Latino/a (PHA 2017) (see table 5). gram), only 3 percent of the more than forty-­ One gateway to receiving housing services in two thousand HUD-­subsidized households in Philadelphia is admission to an emergency the city are Asian, but more twice that in the shelter. Because the receipt of shelter services poverty population are. Further, as of 2017, often gives a household priority for housing only 2 percent of those on the waitlists for pub- vouchers and other aid, underrepresentation

12. Kyle Flood, personal correspondence, October 28, 2019, Philadelphia Housing Authority; Dan Urevick-­ Ackelsberg, letter to Kelvin Jeremiah and Frederick S. Purnell Sr., in “Assessment of Fair Housing,” City of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Housing Authority, October 4, 2016, E137–E139, https://www.phila.gov/media /20190502115754/afh-2016-for-web.pdf (accessed November 12, 2020).

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Table 5. Housing Authority Programs: Average Annual Usage Rates (2014–2017) Versus Poverty Population (2013–2017)

Significantly Percentage Significantly Households Percentage Under­ Latino/a Under­ Program Served Asian Users represented Users represented

All HUD programs 42,418 3 * 6 * Public housing 12,597 0.75 * 5.3 * Housing choice vouchers 17,880 1 * 5.8 * Project-based Section 8 8,919 10.3 7 * Section 202 2,268 7 7.8 * Section 811 284 0 * 4.8 *

Source: HUD 2017; U.S. Census Bureau 2017. *p < .01

Table 6. Homeless Programs: Usage Rates (2018) Versus Poverty Population (2014–2017)

Households Percentage Significantly Program Served Latino/a Users Underrepresented

Emergency shelter or transitional housing 13,052 1,183 * Homeless outreach services 8,348 864 *

Source: Authors’ tabulation based on Culhane et al. 2019; U.S. Census Bureau 2017. *p < .01 in shelter services can have a snowball effect dents about what city programs are available, (see table 6). and which they may be eligible for. They also Philadelphia’s housing service providers compile and maintain information about are increasingly aware of the underrepresen- neighborhood conditions and engage resi- tation of Asians and Latino/as. In the past few dents in public planning efforts. As of 2019, years, both PHA and the two city departments twenty-­one NACs were listed on the city’s web- that provide housing services to the public— site, including two primarily Latino/a-­serving the Department of Planning and Development organizations (APM and HACE) and two Asian-­ (DPD) and the Office of Homeless Services serving ones (PCDC and the Greater Philadel- (OHS)—have adopted new language access phia Asian Social Service Center). The Office of policies that call for bilingual staff, transla- Homeless Services has also recently hired tion of key documents, and access to a trans- three “mobile intake assessors.” This step is lation hotline (PHA 2014; DPD 2016). PHA has designed to address the fact that, although partnered with community development cor- Philadelphia’s homeless shelters are concen- porations to expand its subsidized stock into trated in Center City, the homeless population predominantly Latino/a and Asian neighbor- is geographically dispersed. Two of the three hoods.13 The city responds to the issue of un- mobile intake assessors speak Spanish (none, equal geographic access to municipal services as yet, are Mandarin speaking but they do have through its network of neighborhood advisory access to a call center to assist with transla- councils (NACs). NACs are community-­based tion), and are able to provide homelessness organizations that apply to receive city block prevention, counseling, and referral services grant funds in exchange for educating resi- remotely.14

13. Flood, personal correspondence.

14. Liz Hersch, director, Office of Homeless Services, interview, September 26, 2019, Philadelphia.

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Table 7. Barriers to Accessing Affordable and Adequate Housing

Percentage of Interviewees Who Mentioned It

Asian Latino/a Organizations Organizations Fair Housing or and Community and Community Housing Service Barrier Leaders Leaders Organizations

Shortage of affordable units in community 50 60 60 Low incomes 20 40 40 Large household sizes 10 40 0 Limited English proficiency 50 20 20 Lack of financial literacy 40 0 40 Lack of basic literacy 30 20 0 Poor credit or no credit 50 60 40 Immigration status 10 20 20

Source: Authors’ calculations.

Four Hypotheses to Explain ticipants had, in four cases, accessed Section Underrepresentation 202 housing for seniors, but were unaware that Our interviews and focus groups confirm that it was subsidized by the government. In gen- both Asian and Latino/a Philadelphians feel eral, focus group participants were often un- that it is difficult to find decent and affordable aware that housing counseling, grants and housing. The most commonly cited explana- loans, and subsidized housing exist—let alone tions among both groups are a shortage of low-­ how to access them. In this section, we explore cost housing in their neighborhoods, com- the four hypotheses suggested by our NAAS bined with persistently low incomes, language analysis for why Asians and Latino/as access barriers, a lack of financial literacy, and diffi- housing programs at such low rates, despite culty building credit (see table 7). Mexicans, their need and eligibility. Guatemalans, and other Central Americans, as well as some Asian residents, also highlighted Internal Diversity the importance of immigration status. Directly The first hypotheses suggested by our analyses related to these barriers, some Asians and La- of NAAS data and existing literature was that tino/as described exploitation at the hands of relatively high average income, English profi- landlords, lenders, and realtors. ciency, and homeownership for a race or eth- Markedly missing from their accounts, how- nicity as a whole, or for a dominant subgroup, ever, were any efforts to access public housing might disguise the level of need among sub- resources. In fact, only three interviewees men- groups and thus lead them to be overlooked tioned this strategy. “I don’t know of any [Cam- when governments conduct outreach or distrib- bodian, Vietnamese, or Filipino] family that ute aid. Alternatively, internal diversity might contacted PHA,” one interviewee said. Indone- simply increase the structural difficulty of pro- sian focus group participants were able to think viding assistance. We found some evidence for of only one Indonesian family that had ac- both of these scenarios in Philadelphia. cessed Section 8 housing but were unable to Seven interviewees in both Asian-­ and describe how the process worked or what the Latino/a-serving­ organizations directly attrib- subsidy covered. A Salvadoran focus group par- uted underrepresentation to the government’s ticipant told the story of how he had once re- failure to recognize the diversity among Asian ceived information about city housing pro- and Latino/a Philadelphians. “The casting of grams along with his water bill, but assumed it Asians as a ‘model minority’ does a huge dis- was a scam. Elderly Chinese focus group par- service to the diversity in the Asian commu-

rsf: the russell sage foundation journal of the social sciences fair housing 215 nity,” one interviewee said. The interviewee ex- ing a well-­developed nonprofit network will plained that when all Asians are grouped face much greater difficulty accessing public together, their high average income obscures resources. Another city official noted that their the fact that some subgroups experience levels agency also recruits nonprofits to provide hous- of poverty similar to those of other disadvan- ing counseling services and to advertise its pro- taged minorities in Philadelphia. Thus fewer grams. Limited public resources mean that the resources are targeted to Asians as a whole. The city’s nonprofit partners must have high inter- extreme diversity within Philadelphia’s Asian nal capacity; other than the opportunity to give population, as well as the way its various sub- their constituents access to city programs, non- groups are parceled out across the city, can also profits receive very little compensation and no make it difficult for Asian-­serving organiza- operating support, according to one inter- tions to receive city funding. For example, in- viewee. High internal diversity and friction be- terviewees representing one Asian-­serving or- tween racial and ethnic subgroups leave many ganizations said that despite the fact that their communities too fractioned to achieve this organization serves an income-­eligible popula- kind of capacity. tion, it has been unable to win a city contract According to multiple interviews, Philadel- to provide housing counseling services, be- phia’s comparatively large and well-­established cause its headquarters are located within Cen- Puerto Rican community has a strong network ter City census tracts that are relatively of nonprofits that both develop affordable wealthy—not least because of a recent influx of housing and provide housing resources; to wealthier Chinese to the area. some extent, this network has benefited more High internal diversity also created struc- recent Latino/a arrivals from Mexico and Cen- tural barriers. Language barriers were one of tral America. In contrast, six interviewees and the most popular explanations for underrepre- three focus group participants said that Phila- sentation, cited by nineteen interviewees. Two delphia’s Asian communities have no strong interviewees added that linguistic diversity nonprofit network, especially in the arena of among Asian residents, who speak many lan- housing services. These interviewees noted guages in a wide variety of dialects, further that housing is a technical field, and nonprofits complicates matters. Even a local community must acquire substantial expertise to have an development corporation that serves Asians impact. One interviewee claimed that Asian complained of difficulty hiring staff who can nonprofits have had difficulty doing so for two assist such a linguistically diverse constituency. reasons: first, high turnover in some predomi- Thus it is no surprise that the city and PHA, nantly Asian neighborhoods; and, second, the though making important strides in hiring diversity among Asian communities. “In South Spanish-­speaking staff and translating pro- Philadelphia, Cambodians say that as some gram materials into Spanish, continue to strug- Asians have done better economically, they’ve gle to provide language access for Asian resi- moved out to the suburbs, taking cultural in- dents. Although anyone has the right to request stitutions with them,” noted one interviewee. translation services under the city and PHA’s In addition, this interviewee felt that “each language access plans, three interviewees had Asian group tends to stick to its own particular concerns about the efficacy of these services organization. . . . This creates silos and ineffi- and consistency in compliance. ciencies, although a few organizations are try- Internal diversity is also problematic be- ing to break this down.” Even among Asian res- cause of the current system for distributing idents of the same national origin, lines are housing aid. In Philadelphia, local networks of drawn by income and religious affiliation. “The nonprofits and community-­based organiza- majority of Indonesian community members tions are crucial gatekeepers for city and hous- in South Philly are from Java, so they are ethnic ing authority programs; one city official told us Chinese and Christian, even though most In- that their department relies heavily on nonprof- donesians overall are Muslim,” one focus group its to conduct outreach and to provide counsel- participant explained. “There are ten churches ing and referrals. As a result, communities lack- and one mosque in South Philly. This abso-

rsf: the russell sage foundation journal of the social sciences 216 asian americans and immigrant integration lutely factors into our networks. . . . There is a sources based on immigration status are real. great deal of tension. There are definitely gaps In contrast, the City of Philadelphia does not in who knows what, in access to resources verify citizenship for any of its housing pro- within the community because of religious di- grams. But undocumented Asian and Latino/a visions.” Three interviewees confirmed a lack residents may simply assume that resources are of cooperation among Asian minorities and closed to them. “Given my immigration status, community organizations. and as a renter, I doubt there would be any for- mal assistance for me,” one Latino/a focus Change Over Time group participant told us. Fear is also wide- Another of our hypotheses for underrepresen- spread that accessing public aid will have con- tation is that the Asian and Latino/a American sequences, including deportation, as noted in populations have become more diverse, and several of the interviews and focus groups. their need and eligibility for housing assistance These fears were heightened under the Trump has therefore grown, even as the availability of administration, and especially as word spread housing assistance has decreased. Interviews of the new “public charge” rule, which would and focus groups made it quite clear that this bar some immigrants from attaining perma- is indeed the case. nent residency if they were judged likely to be- The Asian and Latino/a newcomers to Phila- come dependent on government aid (but delphia are disadvantaged in a variety of ways. which, due to court challenges, was not enacted One has to do with literacy. In contrast to older until February 2020) (USCIS 2019). “One of the Puerto Rican migrants, “Mexican and Central reasons people don’t want to apply [for housing American immigrants are from small, rural assistance] is the atmosphere we live in now. . . . towns. Many can barely read. Spanish is already There’s a specific threat that your green card their second language,” one interviewee re- will be taken away if you’re found to receive as- marked. According to three Asian interviewees, sistance,” said one Guatemalan focus group illiteracy is also barrier among some Asian sub- participant. “There are rumors that families are groups. One interviewee, a leader in the Indo- being affected by this change now.” Though im- nesian community, highlighted the importance migration status came up more frequently in of literacy when contrasting Indonesian Phila- Latino/a focus groups, five interviewees cited it delphians to newcomer groups such as the Bur- as a barrier for Asians, as well. One interviewee mese and Bhutanese. “Indonesians were liter- suggested that Asians may even be less willing ate; they were able to become landowners and than Latino/as to reveal their documentation landlords,” which gave them an important eco- status and more likely to become nonrespon- nomic advantage. sive for fear of legal consequences. Another disadvantage, especially in the case As newcomers arrive, it is not always possi- of Latino/as, is immigration status. Many Asian ble for them to take advantage of existing eth- newcomers to Philadelphia are refugees and nic enclaves. As Chinatown became more therefore have a path to citizenship. This is not crowded and land values appreciated, lower-­ the case for Latino/a newcomers, and immigra- income Asian immigrants settled in southwest tion status arose as a key impediment to access- Philadelphia. One city official said that the -Di ing housing assistance for this group in inter- vision of Housing and Community Develop- views and focus groups. Currently, each ment would be eager to have a greater presence member of a household applying for either in this area—but no funds are available to es- public housing or housing vouchers from PHA tablish this presence without decreasing funds must undergo citizenship screening. The to an important existing initiative. The diffi- household must pay higher rent if it includes culty of providing services increases when the “ineligible non-­citizens.” In May of this year, newer enclaves have not yet formed effective HUD proposed a new rule that would forbid channels to receive and distribute municipal public housing authorities providing any assis- resources. For example, OHS relies heavily on tance to undocumented residents at all (HUD nonprofit organizations to provide outreach. 2019b). Impediments to accessing PHA re- Until recently, OHS’s partner organization in

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Table 8. Perceptions of Discrimination

Percentage of Interviewees Who Mentioned It

Asian Latino/a Organizations Organizations Fair Housing or and Community and Community Housing Service Form Leaders Leaders Organizations

Insufficient or inappropriate outreach 60 40 60 Failure to build affordable housing in 40 20 20 Asian/Latino/a communities

Source: Authors’ calculations.

the Latino/a community—Congreso—did not that discrimination against their constituents have the capacity to handle walk-­in applicants had become more subtle over time, making it for homeless services; thus Latino/a residents harder to recognize and combat. could still only access services by first process- Asian and Latino/a stakeholders perceived ing through the downtown shelter system. One two main forms of discrimination (see table 8). city official noted that Asians face still greater By far the most commonly cited was inadequate difficulties because they are more dispersed or inappropriate outreach to Asian and Latino/a than Latino/a Philadelphians and have not yet residents on the parts of the city and PHA. developed a nonprofit social services network Eleven interviewees criticized the city and PHA on a level with the Latino/a one. for failing to advertise existing programs spe- cifically to Asian and Latino/a communities. “I Perceptions of Discrimination have not seen any type of outreach regarding Our third hypothesis for underrepresentation Section 8 or other programs in the immigrant is that Asians in particular are unlikely to per- community,” said one interviewee. The repre- ceive discrimination against them. We did in sentative of an Asian-serving­ organization gave fact find that focus group participants did not the example of the city’s settlement grant, see barriers to accessing housing resources as which is a form of down payment assistance evidence of racial or ethnic discrimination on given to new, low-income­ homebuyers: “To be the part of the City or Housing Authority; how- awarded a settlement grant, you have to go ever, this was equally true for Asian and Latino/a through a housing counseling program. None focus group participants. Stakeholder inter- of the agencies that have been selected by the viewees confirmed that this was more due to a city as housing counseling agencies have bilin- lack of understanding of what constitutes dis- gual Chinese staff.” As a result, fewer Chinese crimination than the absence of discrimina- residents know about the program, and if they tion. According to one interviewee, “the [Chi- do, they must access it using a translator. Inter- nese] community narrative focuses on there viewees also said that when government agen- being a shortage of housing that is affordable cies do conduct outreach in Asian and Latino/a and close to Center City. People don’t know communities, they do so in culturally insensi- what discrimination is, and they don’t know tive ways. “The city fails to build trust before how to seek protection. It’s hard to recruit them having events in the Indonesian community. to fair housing workshops because they just Or it puts the burden on community leaders to don’t recognize the issue.” Similarly, another conduct outreach for them, without giving interviewee said that Indonesian Philadel- them enough time, or any pay.” phians do not see themselves as the victims of Six interviewees perceived discrimination in discrimination; “they just chalk negative out- the siting of subsidized housing, as well. “His- comes up to language barriers.” Two interview- torically, PHA housing has been severely under- ees serving Latino/a communities also observed represented in Latino/a neighborhoods; [the

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Housing Authority] failed to build up a concen- once immigrating here.” Distrust is sometimes tration there. . . . There’s currently lots of re- accompanied by shame; for example, one in- crimination about that; it’s why Esperanza re- terviewee said that Muslim Asians “are sup- ceived a grant from the PHA to develop its own posed to turn to their Imam instead of utilizing low-income­ housing—it’s an ongoing conversa- government resources,” and failure to do so re- tion,” one said. Multiple interviewees in Asian-­ sults in communal shame. One interviewee serving organizations described a pressing, un- suggested that Asians also fear being branded met need for subsidized senior housing in their as needy and avoid accessing public benefits communities. “Senior housing is a huge and for that reason. Focus groups suggested that growing problem for Asian elders. There is no Guatemalans, too, tend to uphold community senior housing within the Cambodian/Laotian self-­reliance rather than look for outside help. community, and outside the community there In some cases, the assistance itself takes a form is no senior housing available that is culturally that is not culturally suited to Asian and and linguistically appropriate.” Chinatown has Latino/a residents. Three Asian and one only one subsidized senior housing project— Latino/a stakeholders commented that re- On Lok House—and, according to an inter- sources that are predicated on homelessness viewee, it currently has a waiting list at least ten are difficult for their constituents to access -be years long. The same interviewee said that in cause Asians and Latino/as tend to double up the two subsidized developments for seniors with relatives rather than live on the street. The nearest to Chinatown, at least a third of tenants same interviewees added that both groups may are limited-­English-­proficient Chinese and perceive available subsidized housing options waiting lists are five and eight years long, re- as unsuitable, either because they cannot ac- spectively. Although we cannot confirm commodate large or nontraditional families or whether that is the case, the perception of a because they are disconnected from familiar lack of options and insurmountable waiting and comfortable environments. lists was consistent across interviews and focus Both Asian and Latino/a residents lack fa- groups. miliarity with Philadelphia’s complex public as- sistance system, a barrier that was cited in Perceptions of Government seven interviews and all four focus groups. The and Government Assistance application processes, especially for federal Finally, we hypothesized that both groups housing programs administered by the PHA, have limited trust in public officials, but that involve multiple steps and copious amounts of Latino/a residents have slightly more trust, paperwork, and sometimes result in nothing which translates into higher program participa- more than a spot on a long waitlist—which tion. Distrust of the government was a popular erodes trust in government. As one focus group subject that came up twelve times, in two-­ participant noted, “In Indonesia, everything is thirds of Asian-serving­ stakeholder interviews, easy. People just pay an agency to arrange one-third­ of Latino/a-serving­ stakeholder inter- things for them. It’s not a bribe—there’s just a views, and one Asian focus group. “Immigrant service for everything. It’s the same thing in the communities distrust ‘free money’ and govern- Chinese community. But in America, you have ment aid. They fear scams, eviction, even de- to do it yourself, engage with the program your- portation. This leads to an unwillingness to re- self. . . . It’s difficult for Asians. We need some- port landlords’ housing violations and to apply one in the middle between us and the govern- for assistance,” said one interviewee. In the ment.” But an even more fundamental case of refugees, distrust of government was challenge, according to eight interviewees and rooted not in a lack of representation but in five focus group participants, is that Asian and past trauma. An interviewee noted that “In Latino/a residents are unaware that public their home countries of Vietnam and Cambo- housing programs exist. “If people knew where dia, [Asian Philadelphians] would have been to go, then yeah, they would access [home re- afraid to ask for housing resources, or they pair assistance], but they don’t, so they end up would use networks that they no longer have doing it themselves,” one focus group partici-

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Table 9. Barriers to Accessing Public Housing Assistance

Percentage of Interviewees Who Mentioned It

Asian Latino/a Organizations and Organizations and Fair Housing or Community Community Housing Service Barrier Leaders Leaders Organizations

Limited English proficiency 100 80 100 Complexity of housing assistance 30 40 40 systems or lack of literacy in navigating public systems Digital literacy 0 20 40 Immigration status 10 0 40 Distrust of government 70 40 60 Culture of community self-reliance 10 20 20 Culturally inappropriate assistance 30 20 0 Underdeveloped nonprofit network 50 0 20

Source: Authors’ calculations. pant said. Asian focus group participants and tion, though smaller than its Latino/a one, is interviewees especially identified “a lack of ed- even more internally diverse; it comprises a ucation and awareness . . . around what re- wider range of languages, national origins, re- sources exist [as well as] how to apply.” ligions, and socioeconomic backgrounds. This diversity has created additional challenges for Discussion and Conclusion the fair distribution of housing resources. First, Our analysis shows that Asian and Latino/a the city and PHA rely heavily on a translation Philadelphians are underrepresented relative hotline to assist Asians due to their linguistic to their share of the income-­eligible house- diversity and a lack of local partners with staff holds in almost every housing program offered who can speak all of these languages. Dialect by either the city or the Housing Authority. One varies among Latino/as, the majority of whom reason is that many of these resources have al- speak Spanish, which has allowed for services ready been allocated to highly impoverished provided in Spanish to reach a larger share of populations who have resided in the city for the population. Second, unlike Latino/as, Asian longer. However, other factors associated with Philadelphians have not succeeded in building the growing heterogeneity of Asians and La- a nonprofit network with housing expertise. tino/as in Philadelphia, including language bar- Some stakeholders have attributed this to the riers, financial and digital illiteracy, and cul- difficulty of cooperating across Asians’ many tural barriers, play an important role. Our re- linguistic, religious, and ethnic divides. Be- search suggests that Asian and Latino/a resi- cause the city relies on nonprofits to distribute dents do not perceive that the city and PHA are and advertise resources, this lack represents a actively discriminating against them; neverthe- barrier to both private and public housing re- less, the interviews and focus groups show sources. Finally, the diversity of incomes and signs of distrust and feelings that the city could educational backgrounds among Philadel- be doing more to ensure equal access to ser- phia’s Asians disguise their need for housing vices. resources. Even though many Asian Philadel- Our analysis highlights that Asian and phians are eligible for housing assistance, the Latino/a communities in Philadelphia face model minority stereotype affects program us- many of the same barriers to accessing housing age. resources (see table 9). Yet differences are im- Both interviewees and focus group partici- portant as well. Philadelphia’s Asian popula- pants had ideas for how the city can improve

rsf: the russell sage foundation journal of the social sciences 220 asian americans and immigrant integration access to housing programs. Many suggested reach or services to another group that repre- that the city, if it continues to use a decentral- sents a much larger share. One potential solu- ized model that relies on nonprofits to conduct tion would be a strategy to increase resources outreach and administer some services, across all of the city’s programs. In other words, should carefully assess these nonprofits’ ca- rather than each individual agency hiring peo- pacity and provide them with enough re - ple who speak Cambodian, city agencies could sources to build and sustain their capacity. As collectively fund an outreach office that has the one interviewee noted, “Cultural institutions capacity to advertise programs, provide refer- offer some of the best resources and have a rals, and conduct program intake in a broad deep understanding of local conditions.” An- range of languages. This approach may not other interviewee expressed a similar senti- work well in the case of a mobile homeless out- ment, stating that “city programs are not cul- reach program, but it could work for other pro- turally or linguistically appropriate; in order grams. to really help Cambodians and other Asian im- Our findings have important implications migrant groups, community-­ and faith-­based not only for Philadelphia, but also for the organizations have to be given more city re- United States as a whole. As mentioned earlier, sources.” This could mean partnering with America’s urban counties have recently shifted arts, service, or cultural organizations that to a majority non-­White population (Parker et may not traditionally focus on housing but al. 2018). Cities must seek ways to serve their work with ethnic groups that are currently un- diversifying constituencies to ensure fair access derserved. However, as one city official noted, to housing resources for all in the face of very the government must go through a formal re- limited resources to do so. This research shows quest for proposals process to partner with or- the complexity of this endeavor, but points to ganizations. The city cannot select organiza- some potential solutions that require breaking tions that do not meet certain capacity down silos across service organizations and standards; neither can it force organizations government agencies. Ultimately our findings to apply. This latter point is particularly salient point to an urgent need for a national conversa- given that one interviewee noted that their or- tion about, and a plan to address, the complex ganization is reluctant to broaden its scope be- and overlapping fair housing challenges that cause of capacity limitations and politics Asians and Latino/as face. around local resources and turf. However, an- other interviewee signaled that though their References organization recognizes these challenges, it is Alvarez, Alicia. 1996. “A Call for Fairness: The His- also planning to enter the housing space and torical and Continuing Exclusion of Latinos from to do so in a sensitive and informed way. Public Housing in Chicago.” La Raza Law Journal Others felt that the city and PHA should fo- 9(2): 155–75. cus on improving language access by boosting Anacker, Katrin B. 2019. “Analyzing Rates of Seri- the number of bilingual staff and providing ously Delinquent Mortgages in Asian Census websites and seminars tailored to Asian and Tracts in the United States.” Urban Affairs Re- Latino/a communities. These solutions require view 55(2): 616–38. additional resources, which are scarce, consid- Ancheta, Angelo. 2006. Race, Riots, and the Asian ering that most federal funding streams are re- American Experience. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rut- maining constant or declining. Allocating ad- gers University Press. ditional funding for outreach efforts may come Axelrod, Zoe, Claudia Elzey, Andrew Fix, and Alana at the cost of other existing efforts, possibly re- S. Kim. 2018. Impacto Colectivo: Measuring the ducing the number of households served. This Collective Impact of 15 Latino Nonprofits in Phila- also raises a question of access versus scale: in delphia. Philadelphia, Pa.: Ceiba. an effort to increase staff or invest in nonprofits Bender, Steven. 2010. Tierra y Libertad: Land, Lib- to serve one ethnic group that represents a erty, and Latino Housing. New York: New York small share of the city’s overall population, the University Press. city may sacrifice the ability to increase out- Betancur, John. 1996. “The Settlement Experience of

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