Overcoming Structural Racism in Housing Stability and Wealth-Building: Laying the Foundation for Community Health and Wellbeing

Background. The racial wealth gap persists due to systemic racism and racialized housing policies from the very founding of the US. Research demonstrates that structurally racist practices affect housing stability (Bailey et al., 2017; Lynch et al., 2021) and, in turn, health outcomes (Meltzer & Schwartz, 2016). Housing seekers in historically Black and Brown neighborhoods experience differential access to capital to acquire homes and municipal disinvestment in gray and green infrastructure that contributes to inequitable wealth creation. Using an innovative community-researcher collaboration, through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), we investigated the relationships among structural racism, housing stability, and well-being. We highlight three aspects: 1) the community research process, 2) community history, and 3) experiences of housing-insecure individuals.

Methods. This mixed method study utilized administrative data, historic documents on structural racism in housing, and qualitative interviews with individuals at risk of and experiencing homelessness. Historic documents were identified through interviews with community experts, our expertise, and literature searches and summarized. Qualitative data was collected via survey and interview. One PI reviewed all responses and identified emergent codes. The research team then worked to create themes and subthemes from the codes, came together for a consensus meeting to finalize coding, and attained reliability. Here we focus on responses to two questions: what it means to have stable housing and what resources were helpful in the search.

Results: This collaboration is part of RWJF’s Interdisciplinary Research Leadership program (IRL), requiring community-based academic PIs. The project must emerge from the community. This project was initiated by the Community Empowerment Fund (CEF), in Chapel Hill and Durham, NC, that provides support to low-income members. In Chapel Hill, home of UNC, Black neighborhoods have faced gentrification and displacement. Affordable housing is a crisis with a growing population experiencing homelessness. Durham is a politically progressive, racially-mixed city. Pockets of poverty have marked city-center neighborhoods for decades. From redlining to urban renewal and the subprime mortgage crisis, residents have been systematically denied asset-building opportunities.

Our advisory board identified interview topics, including the meaning of stable housing. For many still a work in progress, others addressed stability, freedom, and safety. One member noted, “A lot more stability ... ability to pursue hobbies and emotional recovery” while another shared, “Stability and safety for my babies.” Members responses when asked what was helpful in their housing search, noted appreciation with CEF’s relationship-based approach: “The advocates help to find different facilities ...they opened the doors for knowledge” and “People working with me to ... to reassure me that it was possible and that it would happen.”

Implications. One of our project goals was to center the voices of those with lived experiences all along the way. This is not a simple process in a community facing trauma, poverty, and homelessness. Our research highlights how a history of racist housing practices has impacts in both communities to this day. This has implications both for the operational structure of CEF and policies that guide the provision of homeless services and affordable housing development.