Segregation is more often than not taught as an issue of the past. Rarely is it described as something that continues to occur and affect Black Americans and other communities of color today. However, the historic practice of redlining, for example, which segregated neighborhoods by restricting the movement of Black people into White areas paved the way for major issues we’re facing today like the racial wealth gap and gentrification. Though the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 made the practice of redlining illegal, its ripple effect created deeply rooted problems that continue to work against BIPOC in the United States today.
Redlining, to be more specific, describes the practice of color-coding certain neighborhoods according to where the Federal Housing Administration deemed it was safe to insure mortgages and invest money into a community. Green represented the “best” neighborhoods, blue for “still desirable,” yellow for “definitely declining” and red for “hazardous.” This practice started in the 1930s with the federal Home Owners’ Loan Corp. and continued under the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) for the next few decades. Out of context this practice may seem inconsequential, but its roots are deeply embedded in racial prejudice. The “best” communities, coded in green, always coincided with all-White neighborhoods, while the “hazardous” communities, coded in red, were always demographically Black.
Living in a red zone greatly limited the housing options of Black Americans. Because Black neighborhoods were always deemed “hazardous,” the practice of redlining created an unfounded fear that if Black Americans moved to White neighborhoods, property value would decline and impact home loans of White Americans. Because of this, Black families were not only denied insured mortgages, but weren’t allowed to take out loans to buy houses, and Black applicants to White neighborhoods were consistently denied. This led to stagnant inequality which describes how these restrictions placed on Black Americans greatly affected their options for upward mobility.
It wasn’t until the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, that discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, and sex became illegal. However, the effects of redlining never disappeared. As John Taylor, president and chief executive of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition explained, “homeownership is the number-one method of accumulating wealth, but the effect of these policies that create more hurdles for the poor is a permanent underclass that’s disproportionately minority.” Because of slavery, Jim Crow, and practices like redlining, Black families were prevented from accumulating generational wealth which is responsible for the racial wealth gap (refer to July 25th post). White families have on average ten times the net worth of Black families and eight times that of Hispanic families.
Perhaps the most obvious effect of redlining is the fact that two-thirds of neighborhoods deemed “hazardous” in the 1930s are still inhabited by low income, Black & Latino residents today while areas classified as “best” are still middle to upper middle class and 85% White. In Baltimore, for example, “nearly 70 percent of formerly redlined communities remain predominantly minority, as well as lower income.” The same is true for cities like Berkeley and Oakland in the California Bay Area, and hundreds of other cities across the US. It's these "hazardous" neighborhoods, arbitrarily created by redlining, that are often targeted for gentrification today.
Gentrification describes the influx of income into previously lower-income neighborhoods, creating a system of housing units and rental spaces that can only be purchased by the middle to higher-class. This displaces and removes previous tenants by creating a cost of living that is too high. Generally, this is a negative process that segregates communities by race, income, and culture. The reason why many BIPOC are disproportionately affected by this massive investment is because of structures like redlining. This limits opportunities for the lower class to rise before the influx of higher prices. Historically, in communities that are gentrified, many residents do not own their homes or property. Therefore they are at the whim of landlords and other structures that dictate the price of their rent, but if that rent is increased exponentially without proper community structures to improve people’s wealth, they are forced to move. Investment in communities is not the problem. The problem is that gentrification is used as a tool to further displace communities of BIPOC and lower income tenants to “improve” the neighborhood, without giving them proper opportunities to be a part of that newly “improved” community.
Many people claim that gentrification actually positively affects communities because it introduces new ideas, products, and culture into the neighborhood. Therefore it must increase integration of communities, right? Unfortunately, many studies show that gentrification only further segregates communities, especially with regards to wealth. To successfully integrate, it is essential that programs are established that address underlying problems in the housing system before the influx of capital investment. To do this, it is important that prices do not spike without actual investments in the community like creating equal opportunity higher paying jobs, investing in education, expanding loan funds and public housing units that are affordable, enforcing building codes and tenant rights, and establishing community programs that allow residents to benefit from the new investments within their community.
From a big picture perspective, it can feel like there is no hope to improve how our housing system is structured. We get it, it can feel overwhelming. Therefore, as community members, it is our responsibility to contact local legislators, maintain economic growth for all, and invest in our community. To improve the system, we must invest in each other, and most importantly, we need to listen. Because people need to be heard.
Source(s):
https://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/09/20/redlining-the-history-of-berkeleys-segregated-neighborhoods
https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp/aboutfheo/history
https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/strategies-for-responding-to-gentrification/
https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/community_reinvestment_act
https://www.frbsf.org/community-development/files/wp2015-05.pdf
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