3 Inequitable Housing Practices That Still Affect Historic South Atlanta

Neighborhoods in the United States were intentionally segregated through urban planning and housing policy. Neighborhoods like Historic South Atlanta were cut off from capital, services, and resources through practices like these.

These inequitable policies have had an outsized impact on outcomes for affected families, particularly Black and Brown ones. Homeownership has long been one of the most effective ways of building generational and community wealth. Policies that impeded homeownership? for low-income, Black and Brown neighbors removed a key avenue for generating community resources.

Here are a few practices that still affect neighborhoods like ours in Historic South Atlanta:?

#1 Racially Restrictive Housing Covenants

Housing covenants are legally binding promises inserted into housing deeds and contracts. In the 1900s, racially restrictive housing covenants required that the new homeowner would not sell, rent, or lease property to minority groups. Housing developers would use racially restrictive language in the sales contract, ensuring that a Black or Brown person could not own a home in the development. WHile these types of housing covenants were legally binding, residents often created informal housing covenants as well. White neighbors, often fearing that Black and Brown people would move into their neighborhood, would go door-to-door to create a coalition of neighbors who agreed to exclude Black and Brown people from the neighborhood.??

These housing covenants prohibited Black people from buying homes in certain areas throughout the 20th century until the 1968 Fair Housing Act. Consequently, it meant that Black and Brown neighborhoods received far less investment and housing development than their white counterparts.?

#2 Discrimination in Mortgage Lending

Historically, banks were reluctant to invest in certain “red-lined” areas of a city. They refused mortgages to people in these areas because they deemed it too “risky” of an investment. These red-lined areas were overwhelmingly neighborhoods Black and Brown people lived.?

Today, red-lining is illegal. However, we still see the effects of decades without access to investment or capital. To this day, mortgage lenders deny Black applicants at a rate 80% higher than white applicants.?

#3 Lower Home Value Appraisals

Today, Black and Brown homeowners still find their homes are appraised to be far less valuable than their white counterparts’ homes. Lower appraisals drastically reduce the homeowners’ wealth. Even worse, appraisals are often pegged to the values of homes nearby. This means that every low appraisal begets another low appraisal. In sum, entire neighborhoods end up with reduced wealth and being depreciated.

“The difference in average home appraisals between neighborhoods that are majority-white and those that are predominantly Black and Latina was $164,000 in 2015, up from about $86,000 in 1980,” according to a recent study by Bloomberg.?

How FCS is Responding to these Realities

We believe equitable, mixed-income housing is the foundation of a thriving community. Together, we are working to create housing systems and opportunities that fit residents from all backgrounds. We intentionally create equitable, mixed-income housing stock. Mixed-income housing works to undo economic and racial segregation.?

To make this possible, we have created and offered our own mortgage lending products for neighbors to increase their access to mortgages and capital.?

Further securing the benefits of homeownership, we have cultivated partnerships who can provide accurate appraisals. We want to make sure our neighbors have a fair assessment of their properties’ worth. Then, we come alongside neighbors to maintain and boost their home value. This support can look like housing maintenance or initiatives like ADU construction.

Work to rectify this inequity is only possible because of partners and people like you. To join in our efforts to create an equitable, mixed-income community, click here.?