More than 50 years after the Fair Housing Act made redlining illegal in 1968, the legacy of inequality is still a reality in formerly redlined neighborhoods.
Redlining is a discriminatory practice that denied people mortgages based on their race or where they lived. Formerly redlined communities are still being victimized in the present day by environmental racism — higher pollution levels, hotter temperatures, increased flood risk and poor health outcomes.
“This is a result of deliberate policy and practice actions, some of which occurred decades or almost a century ago or before that,” says Jaime Madrigano, an adjunct policy researcher at RAND Corporation. “This has led to a legacy and an entrenched system where people are still feeling those adverse effects today.”
Redlining and Housing Discrimination
In the 1930s, the federally-backed Home Owners’ Loan Corporation created color-coded maps to evaluate mortgage lending risk in major cities across the United States.
Minority, immigrant and low-income neighborhoods were outlined in red, labeled “hazardous” by the government and cut off from lending and investment.
“For most households, their wealth is tied up in their home,” says Perris Straughter, spokesperson for the American Planning Association’s Diversity Committee. “Because of redlining and because of exclusive practices in the suburbs, it was a legal practice to have that discrimination. What it meant is that a lot of BIPOC homeowners could not accumulate the same wealth as white homeowners.”
Redlined homes were often located closer to industrial areas, a reality that still exists today.
“Communities with higher proportions of minority residents or lower-income individuals that don’t have access to wealth generation created through homeownership – there’s less power in those communities,” says Madrigano. “They are less likely to be able to stop industries that may come in and pollute more, or less access to demand better environmental conditions.”
Rising Pollution Levels
A study by UC Berkeley and the University of Washington analyzed 2010 air pollution levels in formerly redlined areas. A total of 202 cities were found to have consistently higher levels of pollution today compared to areas that were graded more fairly in the 1930s maps.
“Formerly redlined neighborhoods have become hotspots for environmental racism,” says Claire Turvill, Sustainability Consultant at Green Diamond. “Redlining helped to create the communities that exist today where we see the separation of high-income white communities and low-income minority communities.”
Turvill says as a result of this segregation, communities that were redlined have become attractive areas for highway construction sites, waste sites and other polluting industries. “These neighborhoods provide inexpensive land, low-wage labor, transportation networks, and people who will accept very low compensation for the pollution,” she adds.
Extreme Heat
Low-income and minority individuals live in urban areas that disproportionately expose them to extreme heat.
The journal Climate examined 108 urban areas in formerly redlined communities in 2020. The study found that 94% of the neighborhoods are currently 2.6 degrees Celsius warmer than their non-redlined counterparts.
“Redlined communities were often created in industrial areas, which came with exposure to environmental hazards and without much green space,” says Krista Egger, Vice President of Building Resilient Futures at Enterprise Community Partners. “These conditions lead to urban heat islands, which are urbanized areas that experience significantly higher temperatures because of the presence of structures that absorb and re-emit the sun’s heat.”
In the mid-1900s, concrete, asphalt, brick and cinder block were used to construct highways and housing complexes near these redlined neighborhoods – materials known to absorb heat.
Trees and green spaces can help mitigate the urban island effect by covering and cooling the environment. Research shows that formerly redlined areas have less tree canopy cover than other communities that were colored green or rated “A” on government maps.
Flooding Risk
Redlined communities are often located in the areas most susceptible to environmental hazards, including flooding.
Over $100 billion worth of homes are at high risk of flooding in areas that were formerly redlined, 25% more than non-redlined areas, according to Redfin. Sea levels are rising and major storms are becoming more common, leaving people of color the most vulnerable to having their homes jeopardized by water damage.
“Neighborhoods on the front lines of natural hazards often have lower property values, which in turn limits opportunities for people who live there to build wealth through homeownership,” says Egger.
A 2018 study by Zillow found that homes in formerly redlined areas are worth 85% of the value of surrounding homes. The median value of a home in redlined areas is nearly $50,000 less than other homes in the surrounding area. Over the last four decades, the typical homeowner in a redlined neighborhood has gained 52% less wealth from the increase in their property value than one in a greenlined neighborhood.
Negative Health Outcomes
Increased pollution, high temperatures and flooding can have dangerous, and sometimes deadly, health consequences.
Late-stage diagnoses of breast, lung and colorectal cancers are more common in formerly redlined areas. In 2021, the American Lung Association reported that people of color are over three times more likely to be exposed to polluted air than white people.
“This exposure can drastically increase the likelihood of developing severe respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses, such as asthma, heart attacks, and lung cancer, and can even cause reproductive and fetal harm,” says Turvill. “A higher rate of pollution-caused illnesses will naturally increase medical costs due to greater need for ER trips and hospitalizations.”
Among all weather-related hazards, extreme heat is responsible for the highest number of annual deaths. Historically redlined neighborhoods typically have hotter temperatures, leaving residents vulnerable to heatstroke and heat exhaustion. Flooding can also have a significant impact on people with chronic health conditions.
Add to that the COVID-19 pandemic. Racial and ethnic minorities have been disproportionately affected by COVID, with the risk of infection higher in historically low-graded neighborhoods.
Environmental Justice and Environmental Racism
Low-income and minority communities face more of a burden to environmental hazards, creating a vicious cycle of poverty and reduced wealth.
Turvill says one of the first steps to solving the problem is for the U.S. government and polluters to take regulation seriously.
“During the last administration, there were rollbacks on pollution regulation standards in an attempt to reduce the burden on large-scale polluters,” she says. “Between the health risks caused by environmental racism and global warming as a whole, fossil fuel and carbon emissions need to be scaled back extremely.”
Communities on the front lines of natural hazards often have lower property values, which can prevent those living there from building wealth through homeownership.
“To erase the legacy of redlining and environmental racism, we must first ensure greater awareness and understanding of these inequities, and then prioritize housing and wealth-building opportunities that consciously address the underlying issues,” says Egger.
“Healthy and environmentally conscious affordable housing is a key part of advancing environmental justice.”
Straughter says greening activities should be made a priority in formerly redlined areas, such as planting trees, installing community gardens or putting materials on roofs to keep them cool. From a planning perspective, he says the effort should be made to bring into redlined areas cleaner industries that don’t have as much noise and pollution. Urban planners can also partner with community groups to improve the quality of life for residents.
“In a lot of these BIPOC communities you have environmental issues and that’s directly related and a consequence of historic institutional racism,” Straughter says. “Unless we take proactive steps to undo those things and improve those neighborhoods, we’re just perpetuating environmental racism.”
