Black Housing Project Spotlights Black Homeownership

A new project from the Center for NYC Neighborhoods, DIVAS for Social Justice, and The ABNY Foundation will highlight the stories of Black homeowners in New York City. According to a press release, the multimedia student project will bring attention to the role of homeownership in building intergenerational wealth and the challenges faced by Black homebuyers.

“The Black Housing Project is part of a broader Affordable Housing Youth Organizing Program taking place in Queens and Northern Staten Island, which has created a curriculum to educate the next generation of New Yorkers on housing history and topics such as redlining, gentrification, blockbusting and the subprime loan crisis,” the press release states. “To further evolve the project, DIVAS for Social Justice is looking for homeowners, community stakeholders and civic leaders, particularly in Northern Staten Island, who have stories to share that will help encourage and empower communities of color to invest in homeownership.” 

The Black Housing Project is one of several that seeks to address these issues and “a direct result of a study that the Center for NYC Neighborhood’s Black Homeownership Project released last March. In it, the Center found that the number of Black homeowner households in NYC declined by 13 percent over the past 20 years due to unsustainable and predatory mortgage practices and skyrocketing prices.”

Some experts warn that promoting homeownership alone won’t close the racial wealth gap due to longstanding structural issues, but new strategies could improve outcomes.