There’s something strange happening, or rather, not happening, in cities across the country. In Chicago, Baltimore, DC, and countless others, housing discrimination has been outlawed since 1968, and yet, most neighborhoods are just as segregated as they were 50 years ago, some even more so.

It’s a vexing problem, one with its roots in decades of deliberate government policies: from the subsidized whites-only suburbs of the 1950s to local zoning laws that make it impossible to build apartment buildings where low-income people can afford to live in the kind of neighborhoods where they want to live.

This week on the DecodeDC podcast, we tackle the question that’s been vexing the country for more than half a century,  how much can, and should, the government do to right its past wrongs when it comes to housing and segregation?

Enjoy other DecodeDC podcasts, plus blog posts, on DecodeDC.com.