How The Real Estate Community Can Work Toward True Independence For All

How The Real Estate Community Can Work Toward True Independence For All

The United States celebrates Independence Day on July 4. But in 1776, true independence was only for white males. For 89 years, Independence Day was a promise unfulfilled until an announcement by Major General Gordon Granger in Texas on June 19, 1865 that all enslaved people were emancipated. Juneteenth (a portmanteau of June and nineteenth), also known as America's second Independence Day, has been recognized and celebrated in many communities ever since, and as of 2020, adopted as a state holiday by 47 U.S. states.

However, despite the promise and hope inherent in Juneteenth, since the end of the Civil War, Black Americans have still largely been denied basic human rights and relegated to second-class citizen status. The real estate industry, unfortunately, has seen its share of racially motivated discriminatory policies and practices:

“¢ Redlining: Historically, lenders would outline with red ink neighborhoods “” usually predominantly Black and Latino “” that were considered at high risk for mortgage defaults. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) would not insure mortgages in these neighborhoods, and in fact, the FHA's underwriting manual stated that "incompatible racial groups should not be permitted to live in the same communities.“ The FHA also reportedly subsidized producers of subdivisions where