November 21, 2019

A three-year investigation by Newsday found strong evidence of systemic racial discrimination by realtors in Long Island, New York. It found that Black buyers are discriminated against almost half the time they enlist brokers. The probe also indicates that the dominant residential brokering firms in Long Island regularly direct white customers toward areas with the largest white populations while directing minority buyers toward more integrated neighborhoods.

The federal Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) voucher program provides rent support to 862 veterans who experienced homelessness in Minnesota. VASH vouchers also connect tenants with VA caseworkers who facilitate access to addiction treatment, job placement, mental health care, and more. However, more than 100 of these veterans have yet to find landlords who will accept VASH vouchers. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said that the VASH program is “a cornerstone

A report by the Federal Reserve Bank found that in Philadelphia, officials selected a higher proportion of gentrifying census tracts for the federal Opportunity Zone program than any other major city. Across the 29 major cities analyzed, gentrifying tracts have a 19 percent chance of being designated as an Opportunity Zone. In Philadelphia, gentrifying tracts have a 36 percent chance of being selected. The authors noted that as the city has designated tracts with “greater concentrations of commercial and industrial sites” rather than residential areas, they may be able to “mitigate the pressure of gentrification on existing residents.”

Dominique Walker and Sameerah Karim, two mothers experiencing homelessness in Oakland, California, founded a collective called Moms 4 Housing to support their efforts to take back vacant, investor-owned houses. On Monday, Walker and Karim moved their belongings into a house they say has been vacant for two years. Walker and Karim hope the owner of the house, Catamount Properties 2018, LLC, will negotiate a deal that allows them to buy the property. Fernando Echeverria, project manager at the East Bay Community Law Center, said the city needs to focus on how to “incentivize landlords… who otherwise wouldn’t sell” at a price that is accessible to low-income residents.

Three recent national studies from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, and the University of Minnesota reported that DC leads the nation in the rate of displacement of low-income residents and neighborhood gentrification. The studies asserted that this displacement is partly because of the city’s uniquely high-earning, increasing renter population. City officials are currently rewriting the DC Comprehensive Plan and are emphasizing the need for more housing and development across the city.