April 06, 2023

A recent study found Black and Latino New York City neighborhoods are more likely to experience structural fires. Because communities of color disproportionately grapple with substandard housing, they are more exposed to health and safety risks.

Sacramento, California, is leasing land for free to the nonprofit Safe Ground Sacramento, which will provide trailers and other services for residents experiencing homelessness. The site will be self-governed by a “resident council,” and the city council will approve an operations plan. This solution is not permanent, but the city said the lease can be renewed until “all the residents obtain permanent housing.”

Jersey City is redeveloping a public housing building into a 631-unit mixed-income development that preserves 192 public housing units, adds 74 affordable senior units, and 28 affordable homeownership units. The plan’s success, which could become a blueprint for other cities, depends on its relocation strategy. “It’s hard to do this well, even with the best of intentions, which it looks like they have,” said Susan Popkin, senior fellow at the Urban Institute.

Though homeownership rates for residents of color in Utah have surpassed national averages, they still lag behind white homeownership rates, especially for Black homebuyers. These trends stem from systemic barriers, such as redlining and other discriminatory policies. “It’s all of those factors combine to determine where a household is, presently,” says James Wood, a senior fellow at the University of Utah Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.