Figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show the median net worth is $9,000 for Black families; $12,000 for Latino families and $132,000 for white families. Yet, Lisa Rice, vice president of the National Fair Housing Alliance, says in the United States, “wealth and financial stability are inextricably linked to housing opportunity and homeownership.”
A 2018 study by National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) found that three out of four neighborhoods marked “hazardous” by Home Owners Loan Corporation surveyors in the 1930s were still struggling. Those communities were marked with lower incomes and higher minority populations. However, using U.S. Census Bureau and economic data, NCRC found that many major American cities showed signs of gentrification between 2000 and 2013.
Neighborhoods experience gentrification when investment and changes to the built environment leads to rising home values, family incomes and educational levels of residents. Gentrification often occurred in downtown business districts and in many cases was followed by displacement of residents in those communities. Cultural displacement occurs when areas experience a rapid decline in population while affluent resident population increases.
Much like what we’ve seen during the Great Migration, demand in industry is giving way to shifts in population. Employer incentives and recruitment along with declining industries have made formerly uninhabitable areas attractive, again. Cities that were deemed unsafe or unsavory are transforming thanks to an infusion of capital, policy promoting tax credits to develop new markets, and shifts in demand for labor from service industries to tech companies.
However, residents who took-up roots in these urban areas for economic opportunity and freedom from oppression are experiencing somewhat of a reverse migration. Having lived through years of ‘shuttering infrastructure’ resulting from massive divestment, many Black Americans are experiencing the consequences of a silent crisis.
Franco, Juan. Mitchell, Bruce. Richardson, Jason. 2019. Shifting Neighborhoods: Gentrification and cultural displacement in American cities. National Community Reinvestment Coalition.
Gross, Terry. A 'Forgotten History' Of How The U.S. Government Segregated America. 2017. NPR.
