Looking at some key statistics, you might not guess that the federal government banned housing discrimination 50 years ago. The African American homeownership rate is no higher than it was when the Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968, while the wealth of the typical African American family is only one-tenth the wealth of the typical white American family, according to new figures compiled by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The black homeownership rate was 41.2 percent in 2016, virtually unchanged from 41.1 percent in 1968, EPI reported. During the same period, white homeownership increased 5.2 percentage points to 71.1 percent in 2016. This inequality reflects the legacy of African American exclusion from wealth-building housing programs; inadequate enforcement of fair lending and housing laws; and the disproportionately negative impact of the mortgage meltdown on communities of color, said Lisa Rice, executive vice president of the National Fair Housing Alliance, a cons…
Source: click here
Loading ...