LISC is committed to furthering racial equity through our Project 10x initiative. Project 10x is laser focused on using LISC’s resources to upend the racial health, wealth, and opportunity gaps that keep millions of Americans from sharing in our country’s prosperity and realizing their personal potential. This holistic approach includes strategies to build wealth and equity for BIPOC families and seeks to lessen racial discrepancies in all facets of our work. Recent trends in the housing market though are exacerbating our nation’s racial inequities and require a commensurate federal response.

Our country’s affordable housing crisis has persisted for decades, with people living at the lowest end of the income spectrum feeling its impact most acutely. Even before the pandemic, our nation struggled to provide equitable homeownership opportunities for all people. Since the Great Recession, the gap between Black and White homeownership rates has grown wider than it’s been in more than 50 years. These discrepancies aggravate our nation’s growing wealth inequality, too. In recent years, these problems have intensified, in both the rental and homeownership markets, and BIPOC residents bear those burdens disproportionately.

On the homeownership side, recent research indicates that housing supply has reached its lowest levels in recorded history. The pronounced lack of available for-sale housing has contributed to large price increases, as demand outpaces supply. Home prices increased over 17 percent nationally and have doubled over the last decade, straining the ability of first-time homebuyers and BIPOC families to purchase a home. This is important since homeownership is the primary way that low- and moderate-income families are able to build wealth and achieve financial stability. Increasing opportunities for homeownership is a key component in combatting historically discriminatory policies that have precluded minorities and others from purchasing a home and widened the racial wealth gap.

The rental housing market is also troubled, as rent increases far outpace income gains. Rents are up a record 13.5 percent nationwide over the last year, with increases of more than 20 percent in certain metropolitan communities. These increases threaten the housing stability of many low-income renters, the majority of whom are BIPOC households. For instance, in 2019, 28 percent of white households were renters, compared with 58 percent of Black households and 54 percent of Latino households.

Read the full article about racial equity and affordable housing by Mark Kudlowitz at LISC.