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 for hundreds of years.

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.

Due to policies that have favored white individuals and have made home-ownership more easily attainable, collectively, white individuals were more easily able to build generational wealth. These discriminatory practices still exist and continue to bar BIPOC individuals from becoming home-owners.