in the 1950s, shortly after world war ii, urban areas were overtly divided into blocks by race. blocks occupied by minorities were close to toxic dumps, busy highways, and other undesirable locations throughout cities. whites lived away from these areas and often realtors would not be able to show properties to whites within these areas. landlords could choose to not rent apartments to certain minority groups, maintaining segregation. until the late 1960s, the government sanctioned discrimination in housing markets by promulgating rules preventing blacks from receiving mortgages insured by the federal housing administration. fha loans, a federal mortgage programme, goes to the white majority and reaches few minorities. in a study done in syracuse between 1996 and 2000, of the 2,169 fha loans issued, only 29 (or 1.3 percent) went to predominantly minority neighborhoods, compared with 1,694 (or 78.1 percent) that went to white neighborhoods and 446 (or 20 percent) that went to integrated neighborhoods.