The board and staff of Washington Homeownership Resource Center stand with Black Lives Matter and all who are fighting for the complete and immediate dismantling of racism in our national, state, and local systems, including our judicial, educational, housing, and financial systems.

A long history of racism in housing has led to significant disparities for Black households. For example, the practice and legacy of redlining and discrimination in access to credit have resulted in Black families having lower homeownership rates, higher foreclosure rates, and increased vulnerability to gentrification and displacement, all of which tie to the racial wealth gap that continues to plague this country.

While WHRC is proud of the work we have done over the past 24 years and know that it has benefited Black and brown homeowners, we understand that it isn’t enough. Going forward, we will take intentional action to address disparities in homeownership access and outcomes for Black households. As a small organization, we continually assess how to leverage our energy for the biggest positive impact.

We expect our work to include:

  • Prioritizing outreach and advocacy that increases access to homeownership for Black homebuyers
  • Increasing awareness and uptake of our foreclosure prevention services in Black communities
  • Partnering with community-based, Black-led organizations to lend our advocacy voice to their members’ policy priorities
  • Advocating for policy reform to eliminate disparate access to credit, discrimination in lending, “steering” in real estate, and the impacts of gentrification
  • Pursuing opportunities to ensure staff and board are educated about and mindful of the history of discrimination in housing and how that legacy is perpetuated today
  • Engaging our staff, board, and partners in collaborative efforts to undo institutional racism in housing and homeownership as well as in our own organization
Reading Lists for Further Learning

On the role of racism in housing and homeownership:

Redlining’s Legacy of Inequality: Low Homeownership Rates, Less Equity for Black Households by Brenda Richardson, Senior Contributor (Forbes.com, 2020)

From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime by Elizabeth Hinton (Harvard University Press, 2016)

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein (Liveright Publishing, 2018)

The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle’s Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era by Quintard Taylor with Foreword by Norm Rice (University of Washington Press, 1994)

Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (University of North Carolina Press, 2019)

The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation by Natalie Y. Moore (Picador, 2017)

 

On undoing racism in general:

MANY anti-racism reading lists are available online, including these:

 

For children and young adults: