Push Back on the Racial Wealth Gap—A Shelterforce Webinar
Authors from Shelterforce’s recent series about the racial wealth gap and other experts talk wealth building, wealth extraction, and the tools available to help close the gap.
Making Homeownership Work Better
Programs that help households of color buy homes haven't made much of a dent in the racial wealth gap. But some strategies could generate better outcomes for buyers.
Rethinking Homeownership Incentives to Shrink the Racial Wealth Gap
This set of federal tax policy recommendations could support first-time homebuyers, enable renters and owners to save money, and help close the wealth gap.
Increased Homeownership Won’t Close the Racial Wealth Gap
Despite the hopes pinned on it, homeownership is currently too affected by racism at every turn to be an equalizer.
The Racial Wealth Gap Begins With Our Tax Code
Dorothy A. Brown’s The Whiteness of Wealth breaks down the deleterious effect our tax code has had on Black lives. Crown, 2021, 288 pp., $27 (hardcover); $17 (softcover).
Property Tax Relief Programs Don’t Reach Many Homeowners of Color
Property tax relief programs can be essential for helping older and lower-income homeowners keep their homes. But access to them isn’t universal, or equitable.
Blaming Redlining Is Too Easy
Expanding access to the housing market is unlikely to do much to close the racial wealth gap. Here’s why.
A Home’s True Worth—Getting Beyond Appraisal Bias
Homes owned by people of color are appraised for less than identical homes owned by white families. Nationwide, that’s led to more than $150 billion in lost equity. How can we stop appraisal bias?
Credit Where Credit Is Due: Expanding Access to Capital for BIPOC Developers
The dual financial system affects not only Black and Brown consumers, but Black- and Brown-led firms. In the past two years, CDFIs have focused on shifting access to capital for developers.
The Post-Protest Pledges: Banks’ Racial Equity Initiatives
It’s been almost two years since the racial justice reckoning galvanized big banks to promise billions of dollars to increase racial equity and close the wealth gap. What are those dollars going toward, and how big a change do they represent?
The Role Student Debt Plays in the Racial Wealth Gap
What explains the large disparity in Black and white student debt, and what can we do to address the student debt crisis and close the racial wealth gap?
The Long Road to Recovery From Medical Debt
Disproportionate amounts of medical debt contribute to the racial wealth gap. What can be done?
The Debt Trap: How Court Debt Widens the Racial Wealth Gap
Debt related to justice-system involvement falls most heavily on overpoliced communities, extracting wealth and preventing the building of more.
Wealth Building Won’t Work While Wealth Extraction Continues
Typical approaches to closing the racial wealth gap focus on ways to help Black households build wealth. But for that to stick, we must also stop siphoning their wealth away.
Rethinking the Racial Wealth Gap With Anne Price
A lot of conversations about the racial wealth gap focuses too much on homeownership as the only solution. It's much more complex. Shelterforce's Miriam Axel-Lute talks with Anne Price, president of the Insight Center for Community Economic Development.
Doing “The Right Thing” Won’t Close the Racial Wealth Gap
Solutions to address racial wealth inequality have often focused on behavioral changes and individual choices, minimizing efforts to dismantle structural barriers to wealth accumulation for Black Americans.
Moving Beyond the Holy Trinity of Racial Wealth Gap Answers
We’ve been carrying out asset-building strategies for decades now, but the wealth gap has not shrunk. What needs to be done about it?
