According Harris, four million people of color would benefit from down payment assistance While housing issues didn?t come up in the presidential debates two weeks ago, Democratic candidates for president in the 2020 election continue to raise them on the campaign trail.
Sen. Kamala Harris announced a $100 billion grant program to address the racial homeownership gap at Essence magazine?s art and music festival on Saturday in New Orleans. The grants would assist people of color who have lived in historically redlined neighborhoods with down payments and closing costs.
Since the financial crisis of 2008, homeownership among African Americans has sunk despite the economy?s gradual rebound. According to the U.S. Census, African American homeownership peaked in 2005 at 49.7 percent and has steadily dropped since. It now stands at 41.1 percent. According to Harris?s campaign, black homeownership has historically been repressed by a number of factors, including redlining, the practice of lenders refusing to issue mortgages to majority black neighborhoods. After World War II, the G.I. Bill provided homeownership opportunities to veterans, but people of color were largely excluded. During the housing bubble in the mid-2000s, African Americans were disproportionately targeted with subprime mortgages, which wiped out any home equity gains in the crash.
Harris?s grant program, which would be administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), would provide up t...