Lasting Legacy: The enduring relationship between racially restrictive housing covenants and health and wellbeing

Abstract Racially restrictive covenants in housing deeds, commonplace for houses built from the 1910s to the 1950s, provided a foundation for the myriad of policies that made it difficult for people of color to obtain housing. Though covenants were ruled illegal in 1968, their legacy continues to shape neighborhoods. The Mapping Prejudice Project (MPP)’s efforts in Hennepin County, Minnesota produced the first systematic documentation of racially restrictive covenants. We use this novel data set to explore the relationship between historic covenants and current health and wellbeing outcomes. Using regression analysis to control for neighborhood level covariates, we compare previously covenanted neighborhoods to neighborhoods without covenants. We find that racially restrictive covenants have a lasting impact. Today covenanted neighborhoods have higher life expectancy and lower rates of obesity, diabetes, coronary heart disease and asthma than neighborhoods without racially restrictive covenants. Additionally, covenanted neighborhoods have less upward mobility for children from poorer households and there are larger gaps in upward mobility between white and black children. These findings contribute to a growing literature that shows racist policies, even decades after they are legally enforceable, have enduring impacts. Using the novel data from the MPP we provide statistical analysis that confirms qualitative and anecdotal evidence on the role of racial covenants in shaping neighborhoods.