By Brendan O’Brien

(Reuters) – A bedroom in Dontrael’s Denver home, Colorado is shared by Dontrael’s three children. It has two small beds and two dressers, as well as baskets filled with clothes and other household items. One child with autism has her own bedroom.

    “We are pretty much on top of each other. According to the homeowner, 42 years old, “We’ve grown out of that house.” The house he lives in has a third bedroom that he shares with his wife and their infant. I’m trying to escape my tiny house. It’s been a struggle.

    Starks, who is Black and whose parents and grandparents faced difficulties of their own caused by housing discrimination, applied for a new city program that offers down payment and other assistance to residents and direct descendants of individuals who lived in a Denver neighborhood that was redlined between 1938 and 2000. Denver officials said that Starks was one of the first people to receive assistance.

Redlining, which occurred across the United States starting in the 1930s, kept Black Americans and other minorities from getting government-backed home loans because federal bureaucrats had deemed neighborhoods where most residents were non-white unworthy. Even after the 1968 passage of fair housing legislation, discrimination still exists in housing lending and in other areas.

Neighborhoods to the west and north of central Denver that once appeared on maps crosshatched with red lines as a warning to lenders currently still lag in health, education, transportation and air quality metrics, according to city data. According to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, 3 out 4 of the areas once marked red are still low-to moderate income.

“For far too long, communities of color have been excluded from the American Dream – cut off from the opportunity to invest in a home of their own, to grow wealth through equity, and to hand that wealth down to the next generation,” Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said in a statement Monday.

Denver allocated $800,000. This will provide homebuyers with $15,000 to cover closing costs and a down payment on a Denver home. The applicant must have less than $150,000 per year in income and a credit score of at least 640.

    Currently 54% of white households and 41% of minority households own their homes in Denver, according to the Denver Office of Economic Development. Nationwide, 72% of whites and only 43% of Blacks own their home, the largest source of wealth for Americans, the National Association of Realtors https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/u-s-homeownership-rate-experiences-largest-annual-increase-on-record-though-black-homeownership-remains-lower-than-decade-ago reported.

Some Denver neighborhoods that were once redlined are now in demand by higher-income earners because the homes are relatively affordable in a city where, according to a Federal Reserve index, housing prices have increased six-fold since 1990. 

Terri Gentry, a board member of the Black American West Museum & Heritage Center in Denver, noted incomes have not kept up. 

“So, how are we supposed to manage to pay for housing?” said Gentry, whose family has lived in Denver for generations. Gentry expressed hope that the redlining housing assistance program can help.

    “I’ll never give up hope,” she said.

Following the murders of George Floyd (and other Black Americans) by the police, there has been much discussion about how to redress the racism impact.

“There are historic and current crimes and egregious racial discrimination and other discrimination as it relates to housing in Denver and every other city in America,” said Robin Rue Simmons, executive director of FirstRepair, an organization that informs local reparations efforts.

    Simmons led an effort in Evanston, Illinois, that resulted in reparation offers to Black residents whose families suffered lasting damage from decades of discriminatory practices in that Chicago suburb. For home repairs, mortgage payments and down payments, the first phase of this program will offer up to $25,000 for 16 Black residents.

    “Like the work in Denver, the work in Evanston and every other city in America is one small step of many that need to happen quickly,” Simmons said. Simmons stated that the state of emergency is resulting from the racial disparities and changes in the life conditions and quality of living, especially for Blacks.