In recognition of Fair Housing Month, Race Forward is proud to announce our new Housing, Land, and Development Project (HLD) which will bring a racial justice lens to the housing and development sector, and provide a network to share ideas, challenges, strategies, and tools. The HLD project complements the collaborative efforts of the Housing Justice Narrative Partnership between PolicyLink, Community Change, and Race Forward. These efforts are to ensure housing is viewed as a public good and wealth building opportunity for communities of color as current housing and land policy creates racialized impacts that concentrates white wealth and harms households of color. In response, housing solutions must be race-conscious to target the most impacted and benefit the whole community. 

Over the next year, we’ll be utilizing four strategies to leverage our recent investments in housing narrative research, community capacity building partnerships, and expansion of the Government Alliance on Race and Equity. 

• Growing Power by building bridges between community-led housing initiatives and allies in local government
• Transforming Culture by harnessing the power of housing justice narratives, arts, and culture 
• Transforming Institutions by organizing with racial equity practitioners in housing and planning agencies to accelerate the transformation of government and develop race-conscious housing and land use policy
• Transforming Policy by advocating for changes in the housing financing system and development sector

With our partners we’ve also released resources to support community advocates and government practitioners in their push for equitable housing and land policies. 

The recently released tools include:

• Housing as a Basic Human Need: A Messaging Guide for Housing Justice
• The PolicyLink Housing Justice Narrative Toolkit 
• GARE’s Advancing Racial Equity in Housing, Land, and Development Toolbox

Housing justice is the process and outcome of establishing a housing system in which housing is a public good and human right –– and therefore, everyone has access to affordable and dignified housing. It is grounded in an understanding of our country’s history of systemic racism and its racialized housing system and centers on the lived experiences of people impacted by these systems. 

In Solidarity,

The Race Forward Team