Reducing the Racial Wealth Gap in the Wake of Foreclosures: What is the Role of Affordable Homeownership Programs?
The racial wealth gap is large and growing: a recent study found that white-black wealth disparities quadrupled between 1984 and 2007. Homeownership has long been an important pathway to gain wealth and reduce this gap, but nonwhite families face tremendous barriers to accessing homeownership, have been disproportionately targeted by predatory subprime lenders, and are suffering disproportionately from the foreclosure crisis.
Affordable homeownership is key to closing this gap, and examples of successful low-income homeownership programs abound. But these programs are not available to all, and there is a debate about how much public money should be allocated to them, who should be served, and how they should be structured.
Ultimately, this debate must move beyond housing advocates and practitioners, and involve all who care about racial equity and social justice. All must be engaged in deciding how to best use limited public resources.
PolicyLink and NCB Capital Impact invite you to this national roundtable to hear from practitioners about successful homeownership strategies and the role of such programs in foreclosure recovery and wealth-building. This meeting is designed for leaders working in diverse capacities in communities of color; no housing knowledge or background is needed.
Speakers will include:
• David Abromowitz, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
• Joe Brooks, VP, Civic Engagement, PolicyLink
• Joe Gray, President, JEG Urban Planning Associates
• Jeffrey Lubell, Executive Director, Center for Housing Policy
• Myrna Melgar, Director of Homeownership Programs, San Francisco Mayor's Office of Housing
• Jason Reece, Senior Researcher, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity
• Kalima Rose, Director, PolicyLink Center for Infrastructure Equity
• Junious Williams, Chief Executive Officer, Urban Strategies Council
Please join us for this important discussion!
Space is limited at this event. Please RSVP to Niva Flor by email (niva@policylink.org) or phone (510-663-4342) to confirm your participation.