Building A Pro-Black World

Solutions Centering Black Women in Housing

Natasha Hicks, Anne Price, Rakeen Mabud, and Aisha Nyandoro

There are myriad ways that our housing markets fail Black women. From current discriminatory practices in the private lending market to historic exclusion from public home‐buying programs, the effects of these inequitable practices and policies on Black women include a lack of wealth and an incalculable loss of mental and physical health.

The harms that Black women face in our housing market are the result of decisions made by the government and real estate industry to segregate housing markets, setting the stage for corporations to profit off Black women's pain. Without understanding the decisions that got us here, we cannot build a housing system that is just and equitable.

A History of Racist Policies

Modern‐day inequities in the housing market are rooted in exclusionary policies that embedded racism into the very bedrock of the US housing system. Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, real estate developers required prospective white home buyers to sign racist covenants that prevented these buyers from selling or renting housing to Black people. At the same time, real estate agents “steered” Black buyers and renters to areas that were designated—formally or informally—as Black neighborhoods.

In the 1930s, the federal government refused to insure mortgages in Black neighborhoods, a practice known as “redlining.”¹ Simultaneously, the Federal Housing Administration ...