DID YOU KNOW? Dr. Walter Cooper, a research scientist at Kodak and the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Rochester, answered ads for 69 apartments in 1954 and was refused at all of them.
Home ownership plays a significant role in family wealth, enabling families to build equity that is passed down to future generations. “Redlining, a term that comes from the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) using red ink to outline maps of undesirable neighborhoods— predominately consisting of Black and Latino families—to unfairly mark them as high-risk for loan default and thus give banks a “reason” to deny a loan, segregated Black, Latino and families of color from white families in the growing suburbs after World War II.
People who did not have the opportunity to build wealth through home ownership because of redlining, housing discrimination and predatory loans are hundreds of thousands of dollars behind in wealth compared to their white counterparts, and continue to face these and other discriminatory practices today. Historically redlined neighborhoods have less access to educational opportunities, healthcare, employment, and public transportation. Learn more through the United Way’s Racial Equity Challenge Day 8: Housing Inequity, or using the resources below.
RESOURCES
Watch the short clip at left from TV show “Adam Ruins Everything” about redlining and the suburbs.
Read Redlining’s legacy: Maps are gone, but the problem hasn’t disappeared.
Watch this local TED Talk on redlining in Rochester on evening this month: A Tale of Two Cities by Simeon Banister and Shane Weigand.
On redlining and homelessness from the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
How do you think housing policies have either benefited or harmed your family?
Is your neighborhood or community primarily made up of one racial group or ethnicity? If so, do you think discriminatory housing policies may have affected this? How?