Eyes on the Ball: Fair Housing Strengthens a Society’s Commitment to Equal Rights

Housing discrimination leads to so many regrettable circumstances. It divides and segregates us. It sits at the core of the affordability struggle. It leads to unrest, anger, and desperation in our cities and towns.

Unfairness in the housing setup constantly affects the quality of people’s medical care, safety…even access to healthy food. It impacts some children’s access to resources like quality education — and, therefore, future job prospects. It restricts social mobility, where access to fair and stable housing could have promoted equality.

Let’s break down why fair housing is critical to the fight for systemic equality.

The Meaning of Fair Housing

Fair housing means that all of us have equal access to safe, secure housing. That is, regardless of our skin tone, sex life, ancestry, national origin, family structure, or abilities. It doesn’t equalize everyone’s wealth as we enter the housing market. But it does foster the ability of everyone in the country to build wealth through a stake in a deed.

Housing is a basic, internationally recognized human right. And equal access to housing is a civil right guaranteed under this nation’s laws.

Also, the opportunity to build home equity by becoming a deed holder is widely understood as a core basis of wealth accumulation. Deed holders’ equity becomes intergenerational wealth. Children of deed holders are statistically more ready, willing, and able to be homeowners themselves.

The ideal of fair access has yet to be achieved. Indeed, the country is backsliding from its goal of housing equality.

Housing’s History: Haves and Have-Nots

In the past, the housing industry’s gatekeepers issued mortgages and leases to married men. Minority and immigrant households, unmarried couples, and single women were locked out.

Appraisals were deliberately stacked against integration. The American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers officially engaged in skewed appraisal practices. The trade group deemed any rise of racial and ethnic diversity in an area as undesirable, and a factor in property devaluation.

At every level, governments made policies that actually increased segregation. Redlining is an unfortunate part of this history. Finally rejecting the idea of a “separate and unequal” United States, Congress passed the Fair Housing Act in 1968. This was the start of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Through its six-decade history, the Fair Housing Act has made communities more inclusive. It has made deeds more accessible. It has directed the HUD, and HUD funding, to push for fair processes and fair outcomes.

The Fair Housing Act has forced the proactive dismantling of race-based barriers, so that all children have a shot at growing up in a thriving neighborhood. That’s not too much to ask. That is government at its best. Housing is the basis of a healthy, safe, productive population.  

It must be said that civil rights groups have filed many suits to keep HUD accountable to its reason for being. We appreciate the work many are doing, supporting deed have-nots, so that they might become deed holders.

Today’s Reality: We Have Work to Do

Black homeowners have long faced extra obstacles when buying their homes. The pandemic seemed to magnify this. When Morgan Stanley surveyed mortgage approvals in 2020, denials got more common for minority borrowers. Only minority borrowers felt this effect.  

To this day, a Black home seeker with a college degree is less likely to be approved for a mortgage than a white person with no degree. And Black applicants who do succeed in getting mortgages are assigned higher interest rates than other mortgage holders. As every mortgage borrower knows, interest adds up massively during the course of a home loan. Lawsuits have resulted in financial institutions paying out settlements in mortgage discrimination cases. One reason for the suits has been unfair interest rates charged to minority borrowers.

And then there’s the over-taxing. We assume that local governments assess property tax rates based on the value of given properties. Yet research carried out through Indiana University found a strange thing. Across the United States, Black-owned homes tend to be assessed higher, relative to their market values.

According to  the Brookings Institution:

Black homeowners’ property tax burden is 10% to 13% higher than for white homeowners, yet their homes are undervalued by an average of 21% to 23%.

Yes, Brookings Institution researchers have discovered that real estate appraisers often undervalue Black-owned homes. So, these homes sell for less than they would, all things being equal. Both tax assessors and professional appraisers, it appears, must revamp their everyday practices.

Mission Possible: Unburdening a Whole Class of Deed Holders

In 2020, MIT researchers published a study observing that Black households pay much more to acquire deeds than other home seekers. Just how much more? The authors wrote:

The overall differences in mortgage interest payments ($743 per year), mortgage insurance premiums ($550 per year), and property taxes ($390 per year) total $13,464 over the life of the loan…

Here again, this warrants serious policy work. Encouraging Black residents to acquire deeds when the playing field is this slanted won’t fix the racial wealth gap. To some extent, as you can see, it shifts wealth away from Black deed holders. Consider the wealth Black households could be building now, with that lost money, if the funds went into retirement accounts. Why would we, as a society, burden a whole class of deed holders with this skewed system?

But rather than fixing the problem, well…

In 2025, fair housing funding was slashed. Numerous local fair housing agencies have had to suspend operations. These actions are leaving people stranded without assistance, including:

• Disabled vets at risk of homelessness.

• Elder deed holders who need home upgrades to be able to age in place.

• Families with children, including domestic violence survivors, in need of safe housing.

• Minority home seekers in need of loans.

The National Fair Housing Alliance recently pleaded to Congress to hold an oversight hearing and restore the lifelines HUD is meant to administer.

Meanwhile, responding to an outcry from Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike, cities and states are stepping up to the plate. It’s not enough, but it’s where the action is now.

Access to deeds should be available anywhere people live in this country. Only by responding to people’s hopes, dreams, and needs can the policy-setters make our society strong.