Advancing Equity Recap: A Three-Part Series Exploring the Homeownership Gap

In May, the Trust completed a three-part series on the homeownership gap as part of Advancing Equity, an ideas exchange that brings together various stakeholders to take deeper dives into topics connected to the racial and ethnic wealth gap. The series, which began last fall, aimed to: (1) explore the systemic issues that caused the homeownership gap in the Chicago region, (2) understand current obstacles Black and Latinx homeowners face to purchase and maintain their homes, and (3) uplift cross-sectoral solutions. It was co-created with Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC).  

In the first exchange, Tonika Johnson, creator of the Folded Map Project and Inequity for Sale, and Maria Krysan, professor of sociology at the University of Illinois Chicago, led presentations on the history and root causes of the homeownership gap. Mary Ellen Guest, executive director of the Chicago Bungalow Association, shared the financial challenges South Side bungalow homeowners face to maintain their homes, contrasting them with the experiences of their North Side counterparts. Johnson also facilitated an exercise with participants mapping out where they lived across Chicago to illustrate the differences between various communities.   

“By bringing together a diverse group of people from different sectors, experiences, and different levels of understanding about the homeownership gap, along with housing organizations and community stakeholders, we really felt like this particular conversation could bring greater awareness to this issue,” said Shandra Richardson, program director for strategic initiatives at the Trust.   

The second exchange included a presentation from Amber Hendley, director of research at Woodstock Institute, who shared data on the stark disparities Black and white homeowners face, including differences in loan costs, property values, and financing for home improvement loans. For a large portion of the day, attendees participated in a charette exercise in groups. Each group was assigned a profile of a current or potential homeowner of color and asked to map out their entire journey – from the institutions they would have to interact with to the problems they would face to how they might seek solutions to their problems.  

“The activity helped folks to think about all the different barriers that individuals and families would hit in the homeownership process,” said Chandra Christmas-Rouse, MPC’s senior manager of equitable and sustainable communities. “Whether it was just thinking about the possibility of homeownership, all the way to estate planning as an elder and how do you pass down an asset like a home for wealth creation.”  

Building off the first two sessions, the final exchange was aimed at inspiring participants to take action. Johnson returned for a presentation on the history of contract buying in Englewood, a practice that stripped Black families in Chicago between $3 to 4 billion in wealth. Hendley presented the need to overhaul the homeownership system, noting that while homeownership is critical to building wealth, communities of color need holistic wealth-building options, or else focusing on homeownership alone will become a money pit for them. Richardson and Christian Diaz, director of housing at Palenque LSNA, led a conversation on the role of philanthropy in addressing systemic issues and partnering with organizations to shift power dynamics. Attendees also participated in an exercise to identify their role in disrupting systemic issues.  

Looking beyond the series, the Trust’s longer-term goal is to get more people interested in solving problems related to the region’s homeownership gap and understanding their role in this effort, as well as the role the organizations they work for play. According to Christmas-Rouse, that journey often starts with building the individual’s awareness of their role in the system and how to shift it so that systems shift.  

Once people have done this personal work, they can begin to change how they work with others and create relationships that are critical to transformative solutions. This leads to the next phase of creating intentional disruptions in systems and reforming institutions to be more accountable to the communities that they intend to serve. Christmas-Rouse and her team at MPC designed this scaled approach to systems change so that stakeholders like those that participated in the Advancing Equity series can more effectively institutionalize equity in their work. 

 “We wanted to offer different tools, pathways, and resources to reach that. Part of it is starting with your own self-awareness and then examining how you’ve come to identify a problem,” she said.  

The Trust also will continue working with MPC to apply their scaled approach to system change and foster collaboration through a training series as part of a new open RFP that launched in May, Advancing Innovative Homeownership Financing Solutions. This funding program will support collaborative efforts between CDFIs/credit unions and housing organizations to develop innovative financial products such as shared equity products and down payment assistance programs to increase the purchasing power of low-to moderate-income borrowers. Additionally, the RFP aims to expand existing and new partnerships to increase homeownership in Black and Latinx neighborhoods.  

“This funding program is a step towards our goal to increase financial solutions for homeowners,” said Richardson. “Working together with partners and lenders on this goal gives us momentum to tackle the homeownership gap in a powerful and pragmatic way.”