''Hills v. Gautreaux'', 425 U.S. 284 (1976), was a decision of the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

. In this case, a number of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

families living in

housing project Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authorities, government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the d ...

s were awarded Section 8 vouchers allowing them to move to the

suburbs A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

in compensation for the housing project's substandard conditions.

Carla Anderson Hills Carla Anderson Hills (born January 3, 1934) is an American lawyer and a public figure. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 5th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Gerald Ford from 197 ...

was the

United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development The United States secretary of housing and urban development (or HUD secretary) is the head of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, a member of the president's Cabinet, and thirteenth in the presidential line of succe ...

; the eponymous lead

respondent {{unreferenced, date=February 2012 A respondent is a person who is called upon to issue a response to a communication made by another. The term is used in legal contexts, in survey methodology, and in psychological conditioning. Legal usage In ...

was Dorothy Gautreaux (1927–1968). The court ruled that the department had violated the Fifth Amendment and the

Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and United States labor law, labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race, Person of color, color, religion, sex, and nationa ...

. The significance of the case lies in the sociological conclusions that can be drawn from it. A number of families chose to move, while others stayed, and

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

researchers studying the two populations concluded that low-income women who moved to the suburbs "clearly experienced improved

employment Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...

and earnings, even though the program provided no job training or placement services."After the Projects - American RadioWorks - American Public Media
americanradioworks.publicradio.org The disparity arguably proves that

concentrated poverty Concentrated poverty concerns the spatial distribution of socio-economic deprivation, specifically focusing on the density of poor populations. Within the United States, common usage of the term concentrated poverty is observed in the fields of po ...

is self-perpetuating and simply alleviating this concentration offers an avenue for improving the quality of life of those afflicted by urban poverty.

References

External links

*
''Waiting for Gautreaux''
2006 (Northwestern University Press, ), book by Alexander Polikoff, lead plaintiff's attorney in ''Gautreaux vs. Chicago Housing Authority et al.'' * United States equal protection case law United States Supreme Court cases 1976 in United States case law United States Supreme Court cases of the Burger Court {{SCOTUS-case-stub

See also

References

External links