FURTHERING FAIR HOUSING IN SAN DIEGO
Where you live should not depend on your race, your income, or who is in your family. That is what fair housing means. We find the barriers keeping people out of San Diego's highest-opportunity neighborhoods and fix them in policy, so fair housing becomes something people experience, not just a law.
81%
of San Diego's residential land is zoned for single-family homes only, as of 2023. That single rule shapes almost everything else on this page.
Source: Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, reported by KPBS, Sept. 27, 2023.
5.3% vs. 45.2%
Since 2000, San Diego's racially concentrated areas of affluence added 5.3% to their housing stock. The rest of the city added 21.2%. Neighborhoods becoming more diverse added 45.2%.
Source: San Diego Fair Housing Lab analysis of 2000 Census and 2024 ACS five-year estimates.
-28.6%
Black owner-occupied households in San Diego fell by more than a quarter since 2000, while total homeownership citywide grew 13.3%.
Source: San Diego Fair Housing Lab analysis of Census 2000 and ACS 2020-2024 five-year estimates.
48.5% vs. 36.2%
Share of all adequate housing sites in the City's inventory located in high or highest resource areas, against the share of lower-income suitable sites located there. Fewer lower-income sites sit in high-opportunity areas than the inventory overall.
Source: City of San Diego Housing Element 2021-2029, Appendix A, Table A-34, using CTCAC 2019 Opportunity Mapping.
San Diego has a legal duty to expand access to opportunity, not just avoid making segregation worse.
Why fair housing requires action →
Five Ways We Work
Building Bridges→
High-opportunity neighborhood engagement
Shared Experience→
Citywide coalition organizing
Ownership Again→
Starter homes + shared equity
Clear the Path→
Permitting and delivery
Measure What Matters→
Public scorecard + accountability
San Diego Fair Housing Lab is a San Diego nonprofit in formation, built on a simple premise: real relationships make research matter. We are currently building our founding board, completing our 501(c)(3) filing, and forming partnerships across San Diego's housing and civic landscape.