JET LibGuides logo

Skip to Main Content

21 Day Equity Challenge

“It is hard to argue that housing is not a fundamental human need. Decent, affordable housing should be a basic right for everybody in this country. The reason is simple: without stable shelter, everything else falls apart.” –Matthew Desmond


 

In our community and in many parts of our country, there is extreme housing segregation that is a direct result of a practice called “redlining,” a form of lending discrimination that has disproportionately affected Black, Latino, and other people of color.

Beginning in the 1930s, this nationwide practice allowed banks to deny mortgage and loan applications, and prevented people from buying homes based on race or which community they lived in. The term “redlining” 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. Housing segregation continued further as the FHA and VA denied subsidized mortgages to Black, Latino and families of color in the growing suburbs after World War II.

The first federal law prohibiting home lending discrimination was put in place with the 1969 Fair Housing Act, yet much damage had been done and lending discrimination still occurs today in different forms.

Home ownership plays a significant role in family wealth, enabling families to build equity that is passed down to future generations. 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.

Use the content below to reflect on the ways that housing inequities are advanced through policies and practices, and what we can do about this issue together.

To address racial inequities in our community, we must begin by learning about the systemic way in which people of color have been excluded from building wealth through homeownership

 

TODAY’S CHALLENGE: Do one or more of the following…