Monday, February 29, 2016

20. Home Ownership

The vast majority of white Americans own a home. According to the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIIP) in the last quarter of 2015, just over 72% of white households did. In comparison, just under 42% of black and 46.7% Hispanics households owned a home.


People of color are shown fewer overall homes when trying to buy a house. In some areas of the country, people of color are not even informed of available homes in predominately white neighborhoods.

Many assume that redlining went away with Jim Crow and advent of Civil Rights legislation. This is not true. Redlining still exists. A number of banks from small to big name over the last several years have gotten into trouble for refusing loans to people in neighborhoods predominately of color and reserving high interest rate “predatory” loans for people of color.

Still today in many neighborhoods, white families will flee their neighborhood when they see people of color moving in. For an interesting hour-long documentary about a neighborhood’s transformation from nearly 100% white to majority black, check out Spanish Lake. It’s on Netflix.

It doesn’t just stop at access to housing. Everything from food delivery to companies refusing to upgrade utilities to neighborhoods of color is impacted.

References:
Homeownership -
https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/currenthvspress.pdf (page 9)

Houses shown comparison -
https://www.huduser.gov/portal/Publications/pdf/HUD-514_HDS2012.pdf (page 11)

Redlining and banks today -
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/10/remember-redlining-its-alive-and-evolving/433065/ (scroll down for a list of examples)

Example of utility redlining -
http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/14/9322481/verizon-fios-access-new-jersey-deal-loophole

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