Housing Justice
Though discrimination in housing was officially outlawed decades ago, enduring discriminatory government policies, criminal justice practices, and illegal real estate practices continue to cause segregation and unequal access to safe and affordable housing for marginalized communities, leading to adverse health effects.
Fair Housing
The practice of redlining was used to segregate communities based on race or ethnicity. Violence was also routinely used to disrupt thriving Black communities as well as retaliate against Black families that moved into white neighborhoods. Redlining prevented Black Americans in particular from building generational wealth through home ownership and ensured that neighborhoods would remain segregated even today.
Redlining was a systematic denial or limiting of private, public, and government services—such as mortgages, insurance loans, and other financial services—to certain neighborhoods based on racial and ethnic composition, with neighborhoods of color being within the “red lines”. These “red lines” were drawn in the 1930s by a federal agency, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), which drew “Residential Security” maps of major American cities. Redlining was not outlawed until 1968.
The economic and racial inequality created by redlining persists even today. In a 2022 demographic analysis of 138 areas where HOLC drew maps, nearly all formerly redlined zones are still disproportionately Black, Latino, or Asian when compared with their surrounding metropolitan areas; two-thirds of green-lined zones— neighborhoods that HOLC deemed the “best” for mortgage lending—are still overwhelmingly white.3 Further, in cities where redlined communities are currently minority neighborhoods, there is significantly greater economic inequality.
Though the Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlawed discrimination in lending, disparities persist and are vast. A 2018 investigation exposed that Black and Latino applicants for mortgages continue to be denied at much higher rates than white applicants in 61 metro areas.
Discriminatory housing practices persist even decades after passage of the Fair Housing Act.
In a 2022 report, 50% of Hispanic/Latino, 48% of Asian/Pacific Islander, and 46% of Black buyers were steered toward or away from specific neighborhoods. This represents an increase from 2021, when 34% of Hispanic / Latino, 28% of Asian/Pacific Islander, and 30% of Black buyers reported the same. 1 in 4 Native Americans has experienced housing discrimination.
Across the country, homes in majority-Black neighborhoods are significantly devalued at $48,000 less than those in predominately white neighborhoods for a cumulative loss in equity of approximately $156 billion. 5% of Black buyers reported witnessing or experiencing discrimination through a home appraisal in 2022.
Source of income (SOI) discrimination—the practice of refusing to rent to a housing applicant based on that person’s lawful form of income—disproportionately impacts renters of color, women, and people with disabilities. The vast majority of SOI denials are based on refusals to accept Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV), and 65% of HCV recipients are Black, 25% include a family with disabilities, and 78% are female-headed households. While SOI laws currently cover 16 states and 90 municipalities—protecting families with HCVs and other types of lawful income—only approximately half of U.S. families with HCVs live in those areas.
Homelessness
Because wealth has been systemically stripped from communities of color, Black and Indigenous people in particular are more likely to experience homelessness because their networks are less likely to have the resources to support them if they face unemployment, intimate partner violence, a medical emergency, or another financially destabilizing crisis.
People of color are more likely than white people to experience homelessness:
American Indian / Alaska Native: Forty-five (45) out of every 10,000 AI/AN individuals is homeless, and 64% of Native individuals are unsheltered, or sleeping in locations not meant for human habitation.
Black: 58% of Black people experiencing homelessness are part of families with children, which is much higher than for white people (26%) or Native people (27%). Black Americans, despite making up just 12% of the U.S. population, also account for 33% of the homeless population total and 27% of the unsheltered homeless population.
Asian & Pacific Islander: 76% of Asian homelessness is found in five states and a U.S. territory—California, New York, Hawaii, Washington, Texas, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Hispanic / Latinx: More than one fifth (22%) of all homeless individuals in 2022 identified as Hispanic / Latinx, which is slightly higher than their share of the general population (19%). In addition, unsheltered homeless rates among individuals in this group has grown by 50% since 2016, surpassing the growth in all other subgroups and the overall increase in unsheltered homelessness.
Pacific Islander: Rates of homelessness in the Pacific Islander community are higher than any other racial/ethnic group (109 out of every 10,000 people). They are also the only group with a higher rate of unsheltered individual homeless (66%) than Native individuals, and a higher rate of homeless families (64%) than Black individuals.
The two fastest growing groups of people experiencing homelessness in the U.S. are single women and mothers with children:
The “typical” homeless family is headed by a low-income single mother caring for two children under the age of six. Women of color are overrepresented in these families; in 2022, 50% of all homeless families with children were Black, and nearly 30% were Hispanic/Latinx.
There were 219,911 women experiencing homelessness in the U.S. in 2019 (39% of all homeless individuals), and unsheltered homelessness rose by 12% among women and girls, outpacing the growth for men and boys.
Gender-based violence is a leading cause of and consequence of homelessness for women and their children, with disproportionate impacts for BIPOC women and LGBTQ individuals.
A combined estimate of 1,129,307 women enter homeless and/or domestic violence shelters annually.
Recent statistics suggest that on a single night in January 2017, 16% of the overall homeless population (87,329 people) reported having experienced domestic violence at some point.
1 of every 4 homeless women is homeless because of violence committed against her, and over 92% of homeless mothers have experienced severe physical and/or sexual abuse during their lifetime.
56% of unsheltered Black transgender people are attacked while homeless and 60% face legal issues, compared to 26% of white transgender people who are attacked and 38% who face legal issues.
In a study of Native women trafficked In Minnesota, 98% were experiencing homelessness or had experienced it previously.
Young adults and young adults of color are heavily overrepresented in the population experiencing homelessness.
Overall, unaccompanied youth (children or youth not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian) experiencing homelessness represent 6% of the total homeless population in the U.S.
A 2018 study of youth homelessness in six U.S. communities found that Black youth were the most overrepresented group among all young people facing homelessness ages 18-24. Black youth accounted for 78% of this population, and young people of color accounted for nearly 90%.
In the same 2018 study, Black young adults aged 18-24 were 69% percent more likely to exit from emergency shelter, street outreach, safe haven, transitional housing, or rapid re-housing back into homelessness and 27% less likely to exit into a doubled-up situation than their white counterparts. Native and Asian young adults were 56% and 70% less likely, respectively, to exit into permanent housing situations than their white counterparts.
References:
Quick, Kimnerley, and Richard D. Kahlenberg. Rep. Attacking the Black–White Opportunity Gap That Comes from Residential Segregation. The Century Foundation, June 15, 2019. https://tcf.org/content/report/attacking-black-white-opportunity-gap-comes-residential-segregation/.
Mitchell, Bruce, and Juan Franco. Rep. HOLC “REDLINING” MAPS: The Persistent Structure of Segregation and Economic Inequality. NCRC, February 2018. https://ncrc.org/wpcontent/uploads/dlm_uploads/2018/02/NCRC-Research-HOLC-10.pdf.
Seventy-four percent of the neighborhoods that the HOLC graded as high-risk eighty years ago are low-to-moderate income (LMI) today. Further, 64% of the HOLC graded “Hazardous” areas are minority neighborhoods now. Best, Ryan, and Elena Mejia. “The Lasting Legacy of Redlining.” FiveThirtyEight, February 9, 2022. https://projects. fivethirtyeight.com/redlining/.
Martinez, Emmanuel, and Aaron Glantz. “Modern-Day Redlining: Banks Discriminate in Lending.” Reveal, June 30, 2021. https://revealnews.org/article/for-people-of-colorbanks-are-shutting-the-door-to-homeownership/.
Snowden, Brandi, and Nadia Evangelou. “Racial Disparities in Homeownership Rates.” National Association of Realtors (blog), March 3, 2022. https://www.nar.realtor/blogs/ economists-outlook/racial-disparities-in-homeownership-rates.
Edwards, Melodie. “Native Americans Struggle To Find Housing While Facing Discrimination.” Episode. All Things Considered. NPR, February 1, 2017. https://www.npr. org/2017/02/01/512887794/native-americans-struggle-to-find-housing-while-facing-discrimination.
Ray, Rashawn, Andre M. Perry, David Harshbarger, Samantha Elizondo, and Alexandra Gibbons. Rep. Homeownership, Racial Segregation, and Policy Solutions to Racial Wealth Equity, September 1, 2021. https://www.brookings.edu/essay/homeownership-racial-segregation-and-policies-for-racial-wealth-equity, citing Perry, Andre. 2020. Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities. Brookings Press: Washington DC.
Snowden and Evangelou, “Racial Disparities in Homeownership Rates.”
Lester, Demetria. “Housing Choice Vouchers Examined by Race.” Web log. MReport (blog), November 23, 2022. https://themreport.com/news/data/11-23-2022/housing-choicevouchers.
Fasanelli, Antonia K., and Phillip Tegeler. “Your Money’s No Good Here: Combatting Source of Income Discrimination in Housing.” Human Rights Magazine, Economic Justice, 4, no. 22 (November 30, 2019). https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/economic-justice/your-money-s-no-good-here--combattingsource-of-income-discrimin/.
Rep. State of Homelessness: 2022 Edition. National Alliance to End Homelessness. Accessed January 19, 2023. https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/ homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness/.
Office of Community Planning and Development, Tanya de Sousa, Alyssa Andrichik, Marissa Cuellar, Jhenelle Marson, Ed Prestera, and Katherine Rus, The 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, Part 1. Accessed January 19, 2023. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2022-AHAR-Part-1.pdf.
de Sousa, Andrichik, Cuellar, Marson, Prestera, and Rus, The 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, Part 1.
de Sousa, Andrichik, Cuellar, Marson, Prestera, and Rus, The 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, Part 1.
de Sousa, Andrichik, Cuellar, Marson, Prestera, and Rus, The 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, Part 1.
Moses, Joy. “State of Homelessness: A Look at Race and Ethnicity.” Web log. National Alliance to End Homelessness (blog), May 27, 2020. https://endhomelessness.org/blog/ state-of-homelessness-a-look-at-race-and-ethnicity/.
“2020 Census Statistics Highlight Local Population Changes and Nation’s Racial and Ethnic Diversity.” United States Census Bureau, August 12, 2021. United States Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021/population-changes-nations-diversity.html.
Moses, “State of Homelessness: A Look at Race and Ethnicity.”
State of Homelessness: 2022 Edition.
de Sousa, Andrichik, Cuellar, Marson, Prestera, and Rus, The 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, Part 1.
de Sousa, Andrichik, Cuellar, Marson, Prestera, and Rus, The 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, Part 1.
de Sousa, Andrichik, Cuellar, Marson, Prestera, and Rus, The 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, Part 1.
The above document was researched and created by YWCA USA as part of the 2023 Until Justice Justice Is Campaign.
