[Rolling Stone] Speaking at the 25th annual Essence Festival, Senator Kamala Harris announced her plan to close the racial homeownership gap that has historically prevented minority families from purchasing homes. Harris’s proposal would allocate $100 billion in downpayment and closing-cost assistance to families living in historically red-lined communities, administered through the Department of Housing and Urban Development. That would be enough to help at least four million become homeowners."A typical black family has just $10 of wealth for every $100 held by a white family," Harris said. "So we must right that wrong and‐after generations of discrimination‐give black families a real shot at homeownership‐historically one of the most powerful drivers of wealth."
Investing in homes is one of the best ways to create generational wealth, but home loans have historically been denied to minority families through racist practices such as redlining. Redlining drew boundaries around low-income and majority black communities and designated them as not eligible for federal loan assistance, preventing black families from borrowing money to purchase their own home. It is largely responsible for the racial homeownership gap that currently exists, where 73 percent of white families own their own homes while les s than 50 percent of black and Latino families do.