Affordable Housing Network Newsletter: August 2023
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A Future in Which All People Have a Place to Call Home
An interview with Kimberly Henderson of Reconciliation Services
A year ago, we officially launched the Affordable Housing Network Steering Committee, affectionately referred to as the AHNSC by its members. The AHNSC is a 12-person committee and serves as a trusted advisor to Prosperity Now staff to help build, improve and engage the Network toward our mission of a housing system in which people of all races and economic backgrounds have access to affordable, safe and stable housing opportunities. Last summer, we put out a call for nominees for the AHNSC in this very newsletter and were lucky enough to recruit a diverse committee of passionate housing advocates, practitioners and researchers. Over the course of the last year, Prosperity Now staff has had the opportunity to get to know these leaders and we hope to spotlight each and every one of them so you can get to know them as well. This month, we interviewed AHNSC member Kimberly Henderson, the Case Support Specialist at Reconciliation Services in Kansas City, Missouri.
Resources and Publications
Disaggregating the Myth: AAPI Homeownership and Wealth | Prosperity Now and Black Wealth Data Center
This blog examines the different factors that go into a family's ability to purchase a home, focusing on the AAPI community.
Racial Economic Equity in Housing Oversight is a MUST | Prosperity Now
This blog shares highlights from Prosperity Now’s comment letter to the FHFA in which we pushed FHFA to add a definition of “equity” to their proposed rule that would codify existing oversight practices and help ensure regulated agencies are dutifully serving low-income communities of color. Twenty-seven partners organizations, including members of the Affordable Housing Network, joined us on our comments.
Despite “New” Great Migration, Little Increase in Black Homeownership Rates | Black Wealth Data Center, in partnership with Prosperity Now
This Black Wealth Data Center blog analyzes housing data in Atlanta, Dallas and Houston, cities in the Southern United States from which Black families had previously fled during the Great Migration, in honor of National Housing month in June.
2023 Fair Housing Trends Report | National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA)
Findings from this 2023 Fair Housing Trends Report include: 2022 saw the highest number of fair housing complaints reported in a single year, and increase in complaints based on source of income and domestic violence, and that most incidents of housing discrimination go unreported.
Heirs’ Property: Acting to Preserve Wealth| Asset Funders Network
In this brief, the Asset Funders Network examines how heirs' property is an unstable form of ownership in disadvantaged communities, especially among Black families, due to its vulnerability to forced sales, land grabs and other losses.
Facilitating the Use of Local Court Eviction Data | New America
In this brief, New America conducted focus groups with local users of court eviction data to better understand the barriers in accessing and using this data.
In the News
HUD Partners with NAREB to Address Appraisal Bias and Discrimination | MReport
HUD is partnering with the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) to combat appraisal bias and discrimination in the housing marketplace through education and outreach.
Survey: 87% of Gen Z Believes Homeownership is Key to Building Wealth, Yet Many Feel Shut Out | Yahoo!Finance
Most of Generation Z feel homeownership is inaccessible for them according to a new survey.
Investors force Black families out of home ownership, new research shows | EurekAlert!
Research from the Georgia Institute of Technology shows investors are most likely to push out Black, middle-class homeowners from neighborhoods.
LIFT Act could boost wealth-building for first time homebuyers; supply could be a problem| Virginia Mercury
If the Low-Income First-Time Homebuyers (LIFT) Act is passed as part of a housing bill later this year, a new program under HUD could offer first-time, first-generation homeowners a 20-year mortgage for roughly the same monthly payment as a typical 30-year loan.
Events and Opportunities
Equitable Communities Conference 2023: A Focus on Racial Equity | CNHED |Washington D.C. | September 23, 2023
ICYMI: Camp Prosperity ’23: Changing the Tides of Advocacy | Prosperity Now |Virtual Learning Opportunity
