Our movement’s illustrations of restorative policies that our readers can endorse to win redress.
1. Property Taxes and Racial RedressProperty Tax BriefProperty taxes are both racially discriminatory and economically regressive. Black homeowners, whose homes are often devalued, pay more property taxes relative to the market value of their home than do white homeowners. Often, they receive lesser services for this premium. Both issues are due in large part to systemic racial segregation in the U.S. This brief summarizes and unpacks existing research on the issue of property tax inequality. In addition to unpacking this issue and its link to racial segregation, it also discusses how property tax inequality can be redressed through interventions in tax assessments and administration. As a case study, it highlights recent property issues taking place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
2. Corporate Landlords and Racial RedressCorporate Landlords BriefInvestors bought roughly one quarter of single-family homes old in the U.S. in 2021. Research shows that corporate landlords tend to target their purchases toward entry-level and affordably priced homes located in disproportionately Black neighborhoods. It also documents how corporate landlords drive up housing prices by eliminating affordable housing supply, charge tenants a litany of atypical fees, and evict residents at higher rates than smaller, mom-and-pop landlords. This brief makes the case, starting with the foreclosure crisis of the Great Recession and following through to the pandemic-era housing market, that corporate landlords both profit from segregation and exacerbate pre-existing racial wealth and homeownership gaps that segregation built. It then highlights a number of potential interventions to curb corporate landlord power through different levels of housing policy and grassroots organization. As a case study, it highlights the effect of corporate landlord activity in the Charlotte, North Carolina metropolitan area.
3. Homeowners Associations Homeowners Association BriefAs of 2022, roughly one-quarter of Americans (74 million) lived in community associations, which are privately governed, planned residential communities that include homeowners associations (HOAs), condominiums, and housing cooperatives. This brief is a study that illuminates a clear trajectory linking community associations to the creation and enforcement of former racial covenants; which indicates alarming trends that threaten to exacerbate the racial homeownership and wealth gaps through the widespread under-funding and under-regulation of community association reserves; and that highlights, like many studies before it, the need for further research and clearer data on the subject of community associations from private and public stakeholders.
More coming soon!