How climate change impacts minority communities

July 2, 2024 5:00 AM

Though outlawed by the Fair Housing Act in 1968, the racist housing practice of redlining perpetuated a wealth gap for Black people and contributed to an intentional disinvestment in minority communities. The effects are still being felt today, says Nikitra Bailey, executive vice president at the National Fair Housing Alliance, as some of these communities become particularly vulnerable to climate-related risk.

"[Climate change] is falling on communities that were already historically burdened by negative environmental impacts because our nation's public policies relegated families of color to neighborhoods that were more toxic than the neighborhoods that white communities were allowed to live in," she said. "So we see that climate impacts are now developing, and they are having a disproportionate impact on communities of color."

As temperatures rise, wildfires erupt and flooding events become more frequent, the burden on historically marginalized communities increases.

Bailey and NFHA are hopeful the Department of Housing and Urban Development passes the final iteration of its Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule to mitigate some of the ramifications of prior community disinvestment and redlining.

"We've been pushing for the release of HUD's Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing final rule, so that there could be the stick in place for insurance funds like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act being administered in a way that actually prioritizes the replacement, rebuilding and strengthening of infrastructure that serves communities of color," Bailey noted.

In an interview with National Mortgage News, Bailey shares her thoughts on how redlining has contributed to minorities being more susceptible to the negative effects of climate change and how initiatives by the federal government can have a big impact.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

How are minority communities more impacted by climate change?

Our nation's public policies have been set up in a way where they advantaged white communities while intentionally disadvantaging communities of color.

When the Federal Housing Administration formulated its rules for ensuring mortgage loans [there were policies put in place] that devalued homes in communities of color. They intentionally redlined communities based on racial demographics at the time. Communities that had a higher percentage of white residents were considered to be communities where investments should occur, and communities that were heavily populated by black citizens and other citizens of color, those communities were redlined, and what that resulted in was the official policy of the government actually demanding residential segregation and the administration of that program.

So we saw suburban communities develop like Levittown, Pennsylvania throughout the United States, but we did not see those communities operate in a manner that was integrated, even though we know many families of color could afford to live in those neighborhoods and could afford a home. Communities of color were redlined to areas that were more toxic in their nature and in many ways hazardous. People were living in close proximity to hazardous waste sites or poor air quality sites.

What we see from the data is that Black and Latino community members disproportionately live in neighborhoods with poorer qualities of air, water and other environmental factors that create physical and health hardships for those communities. As we see climate impact and its result on communities, it is falling on communities that were already historically burdened by negative environmental impacts because our nation's public policies relegated families of color to neighborhoods that were more toxic than the neighborhoods that white communities were allowed to live in. Climate impacts are now developing, and they are having a disproportionate impact on communities of color.

How does climate change exacerbate underlying disparities in these communities?

Oftentimes, people of color live in neighborhoods with a lack of grocery stores, or you've been relegated to communities without quality parks. The lack of tree canopies means that they're living in areas that are hotter, or communities are more impacted by climate effects because the air that people actually breathe on a daily basis is more toxic, or the water isn't clean. Those are the ongoing impacts of redlining in underserved communities of color.

What are some stark examples of areas in which underserved communities are already being impacted by climate change?

When you think about a city like Houston and the flooding there, it's a result of a lack of proper infrastructure. That's a neighborhood that comes to mind in terms of the impact of climate on that community. People who live in the city of Houston have been relegated to areas that are more prone to climate impact because of the history of discriminatory housing policies. There has been massive flooding there, and that massive flooding has harmed people living in neighborhoods of color at a greater impact than people who don't live in those neighborhoods.

As weather patterns potentially become more unpredictable, what happens to these communities?

There has to be intention behind making sure that climate impacts don't disproportionately fall on underserved communities of color. We're going to need to make sure our public policies are designed in a way that affirmatively further fair housing.

The federal Fair Housing Act stops discrimination, but it also requires jurisdictions in those in receipt of federal funding for housing and community development to administer their programs in a manner that affirmatively further the goals of the fair housing act. It's important that programs that they develop comply with it's called the AFFH mandate, and that the federal agencies that are administering programs like the Infrastructure Reduction Act or the bipartisan infrastructure law, that those programs are administered in a way where the funding places a priority on removing and remediating long standing legacies of segregation.

Funding should be prioritized in a manner to restore, invest in and strengthen those communities in a way that reduces, rather than perpetuates, desegregation and also that reduces the impact of climate on those underserved communities.

How is federal funding being used to prop up underserved communities?

We've been pushing for the release of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing final rule, so that there could be the stick in place for insurance funds like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act being administered in a way that actually prioritizes the replacement, rebuilding and strengthening of infrastructure that serves communities of color. That includes the building of bridges and roads and flood insurance and public transit, and making sure that those investments equitably benefit and support communities of color that have been adversely affected by inequitable funding, a lack of code enforcement, environmental hazards and climate change, so that we can avoid any type of displacement.

We also have to make sure the recipients of those funds target and prioritize action for climate mitigation and resilience support for communities of color that are most impacted by climate and natural disasters, because these communities have the fewest resources to support them during a recovery period. That's why we've been pushing for the administration to release the final AFFH rule from HUD, which is currently with the Office of Management and Budget. We need to make sure that we're using all the tools in our toolbox to require climate mitigation as part of planning efforts.

Is climate change and its impact on different communities getting enough attention?

I think climate change is being noticed. From an insurance standpoint, we see that insurers are pulling out of some areas that have been hit by prior climate impacts and are likely to be hit by future climate impacts, and very important for those communities to not be communities that have a history of being disadvantaged by federal housing policy.

We have to analyze the license for any potential disparate impact on communities, and we have to make sure that as we're designing mitigation strategies that are taking into account the history of discrimination and it's not further aggravating neighborhoods or displacing long term residents and not providing them with real, fair housing choices. That's the priority that we're focused on for advocacy, and that's why we believe HUD's final AFFH tool is so critical, because it's a tool for community planning, and it incorporates a community planning process.