On Our Radar

ABC News, July 4, 2023, Black-owned banks, born out of post-slavery economic barriers, seek to address racial wealth gap Black-owned businesses were about half as likely as white-owned businesses to receive all or most of the financing they requested, according to a 2022 Federal Reserve report. The struggle to find capital isn’t new. After the […]

Yahoo Finance, July 1, 2023, Florida law limiting foreign real estate investors ‘borders on redlining’ The bill signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May bans citizens from Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Russia, China, North Korea and Syria from purchasing agricultural land in the state. It would also restrict foreigners from those countries from buying real estate within 20

Washington Post, June 27, 2023, EPA closes civil rights investigation into Louisiana pollution In a setback for environmental justice advocates, the Biden administration has closed a civil rights investigation of two Louisiana state agencies without finding discrimination in how the agencies regulated chemical plants in the area known as “Cancer Alley.” The [Louisiana] attorney general

New York Times, June 26, 2023, What Is Happening in the Housing Market? Mortgage rates are now hovering around 7 percent — the highest they’ve been since 2007 — thanks to the Federal Reserve’s efforts to tame inflation. Central bankers have lifted their official policy rate to about 5 percent over the past 15 months,

Portland Press Herald, June 26, 2023, Portland could become home to the state’s first affordable housing for older LGBTQ+ adults The first affordable housing complex for the LGBTQ+ community and its allies over age 55 in Maine is being developed in Portland. “There are lots of challenges for older LGBTQ+ adults and housing is one

Politico, June 27, 2023, ‘I don’t want to become San Francisco’: Urban woes spur state action on housing Officials in Washington state and Vermont looked at the housing crisis in San Francisco this year and took action to prevent the same thing happening in their states: They effectively banned single-family zoning. While San Francisco’s well-documented

Washington Post, June 28, 2023, Push to tie Medicaid to work is making a comeback. Georgia is at forefront. Weeks after [Georgia Governor] Kemp was sworn in, his allies in the legislature began working on a plan. It envisioned a more limited Medicaid expansion for able-bodied adults — with or without children — than is

Zillow, June 22, 2023, Affordability Crisis: United States Needs 4.3 Million More Homes Across the country in 2021, there were roughly 8 million missing households – individuals or families living with non-relatives, potentially preferring to live on their own – compared to just 3.7 million housing units available for rent or for sale, a deficit

New York Times, June 21, 2023, Child Care Disruptions Expected as Record Funding Nears an End For two years, the United States has been effectively running an experiment in federally funding child care providers. The $24 billion disbursed in pandemic relief has been the largest investment in child care in U.S. history. Child care providers

New York Times, June 20, 2023, Federal Policy on Homelessness Becomes New Target of the Right The approach known as Housing First has long enjoyed bipartisan support. But conservatives are pushing efforts to replace it with programs that put more emphasis on sobriety and employment. Republican lawmakers, backed by conservative think tanks and programs denied

Washington Post, June 23, 2023, 3M to pay $10.3 billion to settle lawsuits over ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water Manufacturing giant 3M announced late Thursday that it has reached a sweeping settlement with U.S. cities and towns over claims that the company contaminated water supplies with “forever chemicals,” long-lasting compounds that can harm human health. The company,

BBC, June 14, 2023, Using AI for loans and mortgages is big risk, warns EU boss Ms Vestager, who is the European Commission’s executive vice president, said AI regulation needs to be a “global affair”. Ms Vestager said AI’s potential to amplify bias or discrimination, which can be contained in the vast amounts of data

New York Times, June 21, 2023, Maxine Waters Proposes Billions to Expand Low-Income Housing Representative Maxine Waters of California introduced a package of three bills on Wednesday aimed at narrowing the country’s racial wealth gap. Ms. Waters is seeking $100 billion in direct assistance to first-time home buyers; more than $150 billion in fair and

USA Today, June 20, 2023, Supreme Court declines appeal from Christian school fighting transgender housing The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear an appeal from a Christian college in Missouri that sued the Biden administration over its decision to shield transgender people from housing discrimination. At issue was a 2021 memo from the Department

Marketplace, June 19, 2023, Water contamination in Black communities doesn’t stop at Flint or Jackson In a lot of ways, the water crises in Flint, Michigan and Jackson, Mississippi, put lead-poisoned water on the map. And while the Biden administration has since earmarked more than $50 billion to replace lead pipes and build water treatment plants, a 2018 report by the Environmental