Topic 3: Housing Inequality

Where The Lines Are Drawn: Housing and the Map of Inequality

This topic examines how decisions about housing shape who has access to stability, opportunity, and security. Through a combination of reporting, human rights frameworks, and economic analysis, the materials examine how housing policies, markets, and systems of governance influence where and how people live. They also consider the social forces, like race, segregation, and historical patterns of exclusion, that affect access and opportunity.

Goal: Consider how boundaries around housing are created, reinforced, and challenged, and what these lines reveal about inequality, belonging, and power within societies.

Source Materials

Questions will be asked from the following:

1. Housing and Inclusive Growth - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (PDF)

   • Note: Foreword and Annexes will not be covered

2. 4 Practical Solutions to The World’s Spiraling Housing Crisis - World Economic Forum (WEF)

3. The Right to Adequate Housing - Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR) (PDF)

4. Housing Segregation and Redlining in America: A Short History - Code Switch NPR (YouTube)

   • Testable timestamp: 0:31 to end of video

What’s Fair Game

All information in the materials is testable, including:

• Graph/figure content (labels, numbers, statistics)
• Dates
• Numbers and statistics
• Names and backgrounds of speakers or individuals mentioned
• Definitions for key terms

Note

References within the materials do not need to be memorized.

Key Themes to Study

• Redlining and its historical impact
• Fair Housing Act of 1968
• Housing as a human right
• Connection between housing and:
  • Wealth inequality
  • School funding
  • Health outcomes
  • Policing
• Global housing crisis solutions
• HOLC residential security maps

Competition Rules

See the Quiz Bowl page for full competition rules and scoring.

Contact

For questions about the materials: hkhattak@getmistified.com