Redlining and Reparations

With Good Reason

The homeownership gap between whites and African Americans has exploded since the housing bust. It’s now wider than it was during the Jim Crow era. LaDale Winling (Virginia Tech) says this has its roots in the redlining and race-based denial of home loans dating back to the 1930s. Also: We’re in the midst of a generational change in where we live. Tim Murray (Virginia Military Institute) says millennials, saddled with student loans, are delaying home-buying, while baby boomers are selling their over-large houses or downsizing. Later in the show: There’s an eviction crisis in the United States, and it’s disproportionately affecting communities of color. Kathryn Howell and Ben Teresa are part of the RVA Eviction Lab which gathers data on eviction rates. They say high eviction rates destabilize communities, cause high turnover in student populations, and reduce community engagement and access to community networks and jobs. And: People who live on or near American Indian reservations are being denied access to consumer credit. Valentina Dimitrova-Grajzl (VMI) says redlining is a factor. Dimitrova-Grajzl has been named a 2019 outstanding faculty member by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.