Healing ‘scars of centuries’: Tackling the dual ills of housing inequality, racism

This summer, shortly after George Floyd was callously murdered by police in Minneapolis and demonstrations erupted across the country, I sought to understand how prior U.S. presidents led our country through periods of deep division and social unrest. I began with a biography of Lyndon B. Johnson, who presided over a war abroad and social unrest at home, and whose mixed legacy includes landmark civil rights legislation including the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

I was struck by a passage from his commencement speech at Howard University in 1965: “You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please. You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, ‘you are free to compete with all the others,’ and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.”

Forty-five years and one global pandemic later, our nation’s unhealed scars have resurfaced, inflamed by a virus that has disproportionately inflicted pain and economic hardship on Blacks and Latinos, and exacerbated by a problem that was looming for decades: the affordable housing crisis. Nearly 1 in 4 renters spends half of their income on rent — and many are minorities. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated succinctly to the National Low Income Housing Coalition in June, “[O]ne knee to the neck just exploded a tinderbox of injustices to address and one of them is housing.”

The reality is, despite incremental progress, the economic divide between Black and White Americans is almost as stark today as in Johnson’s era. Now, with the expiration of supplemental unemployment benefits, millions of Americans are on the brink of financial disaster and homelessness, with Black and Latino renters bearing the brunt. The NLIHC reports there could be as many as 30 million Americans at risk of eviction this year.

The data reinforce what I see firsthand in my hometown of Miami, where the gap between rich and poor is comparable to some developing countries, and Blacks are more than two times more likely to live in poverty. It’s also a reality I confront every day as a developer of affordable housing. Many of our residents are Black and Latino low-wage service workers on which cities like Miami rely — and where, even in good times, wages can’t keep pace with rising housing costs. With the pandemic lingering on, and Florida’s unemployment rate still above 7%, many are out of work. Some of our residents won’t be able to make November rent. We’re doing what we can to help, but as a landlord, I am also constrained by financial obligations and regulatory compliance issues.

My chief concern right now is not the fate of my business (although many landlords are and that is a legitimate cause for concern too), as there is always a waiting list for affordable apartments. What I grapple with is my moral duty to keep a roof over the heads of families in the midst of a pandemic; I worry about the fate of our country’s soul if we allow millions to lose their homes now.

The passage of a second stimulus package to help Americans struggling to make mortgage or rent payments is an absolute necessity to avoid catastrophe. But we need to do more to address the affordable housing crisis and the systemic racism that is both its cause and effect.

The opportunity in this moment, as difficult as it is, is that the complex relationship between housing affordability, public health and social justice is on full display.

Another opportunity: affordable housing advocates and legislators have already laid the groundwork for change. There is broad bipartisan support for expansion of the successful housing tax credit program — which experts believe could create up to 610,000 additional affordable homes over the next decade and 510,000 jobs for Americans. That bill, a victim of Congressional gridlock, was reintroduced this summer as the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2019 (AHCIA), and advocates are urging lawmakers to incorporate it into the next COVID-19 relief package. It simply requires the political will to do so.

Affordable housing alone won’t heal the “scars of centuries”; it will take a concerted effort among all facets of society to address systemic racism and economic inequality. But ensuring that all Americans have access to safe, clean and affordable housing is a baseline, as the civil rights proponents of the 1960s understood.

Matthew A. Rieger is president and CEO of Housing Trust Group, a national developer of affordable housing. He is also a member of the Housing Advisory Group in Washington, D.C., and is on the board for the University of Miami Master of Real Estate Development + Urbanism Program.

This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 12:00 AM.