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[quote=Anonymous] Also see this article—discussing what Montgomery County accomplished in terms of “Fair Housing”: https://www.propublica.org/article/living-apart-how-the-government-betrayed-a-landmark-civil-rights-law

--LIVING APART:  HOW THE GOVERNMENT BETRAYED A LANDMARK CIVIL RIGHTS LAW--  
by:  Nikole Hannah-Jones, 06/25/15

The Wealthy County that Could:

“Without prodding from HUD or federal officials, the council for Montgomery County, Md., moved in the 1970s to enact a zoning ordinance that required developers to include affordable units in each large development.

Montgomery County seemed an implausible place for such a move. The 92 percent-white suburb bordered on 65-percent black Washington, D.C. and had desegregated its schools just a decade before. But the civil rights struggles of the 1960s brought a new generation into local government. They were shocked when a study found that many African Americans in the county lived in *shacks that lacked running water or sewer connections.

[*Note--They were referring to SCOTLAND COMMUNITY].

"We saw the segregation," said Joyce Siegel, county housing commissioner at the time. "It was a fairness issue — that one part of the county wasn't going to have more affordable housing than another. **We had to be fair."

[**Note—Joyce Siegel and Geneva Mason played a big part in the “Save our Scotland,” an organization devoted to improving living conditions in SCOTLAND COMMUNITY in 1964-65.  They were instrumental in getting HUD to provide a government grant for the construction homes in the community.]

The Suburban Maryland Fair Housing group, which had been fighting real estate covenants, joined forces with the League of Women Voters. They championed an ordinance that would ensure decent housing for African Americans and lower-income people and bar the county from concentrating its affordable housing in desolate pockets. The proposed law said any development of more than 50 units (it has since been lowered to 20) must set aside no less than 15 percent of the housing for lower-income residents. Even more radical, the ordinance allowed the county to purchase up to a third of the affordable units for use as public housing. No community within the county's jurisdiction was excluded.

The measure met fervid resistance from many suburban communities within the county. At one point, Siegel said, she needed a police escort. It took six years to pass the law. One advocate brought a birthday cake before the council each year to mark its failure. When the council finally approved the legislation in 1973, the county executive vetoed it, only to see his veto over-ridden. The ordinance became law in January 1974, a time when other cities and towns were rushing to put up zoning barriers to keep out lower-income housing. Montgomery County's law was the first such zoning ordinance in the country, and it has spurred construction of more than 13,000 affordable housing units tucked into some of the county's most exclusive zip codes.

From the standpoint of desegregation, Montgomery County has become a model of what could have been.

Over three decades, its black population more than tripled to 18 percent. It remains one of the nation's richest counties, yet segregation has fallen well below the national average.”

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