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Biden-Harris
Administration
announces
new
actions
to build
Black
Wealth
and
narrow
the
Racial
Wealth
Gap
WASHINGTON
DC - One
hundred
years
ago, the
thriving
Black
community
of
Greenwood
in
Tulsa,
Oklahoma,
known as
“Black
Wall
Street,”
was
ruthlessly
attacked
by a
violent
white
supremacist
mob. An
estimated
300
Black
Americans
were
killed
and
another
10,000
were
left
destitute
and
homeless.
The
destruction
wrought
on the
Greenwood
neighborhood
and its
families
was
followed
by laws
and
policies
that
made
recovery
nearly
impossible.
The
streets
were
redlined,
locking
Black
Tulsans
out of
homeownership
and
access
to
credit.
Federal
highways
built
through
the
heart of
Greenwood
cut off
families
and
businesses
from
economic
opportunity.
And
chronic
disinvestment
by the
federal
government
in Black
entrepreneurs
and
small
businesses
denied
Black
Wall
Street a
fair
shot at
rebuilding.
These
are the
stories
of
Greenwood,
but they
have
echoes
in
countless
Black
communities
across
the
country.
Because
disparities
in
wealth
compound
like an
interest
rate,
the
disinvestment
in Black
families
in Tulsa
and
across
the
country
throughout
our
history
is still
felt
sharply
today.
The
median
Black
American
family
has
thirteen
cents
for
every
one
dollar
in
wealth
held by
White
families.
Today,
on the
centennial
of the
Tulsa
Race
Massacre,
the
Biden-Harris
Administration
is
announcing
new
steps to
help
narrow
the
racial
wealth
gap and
reinvest
in
communities
that
have
been
left
behind
by
failed
policies.
Specifically,
the
Administration
is
expanding
access
to two
key
wealth-creators
–
homeownership
and
small
business
ownership
– in
communities
of color
and
disadvantaged
communities.
The
Administration
will:
Take
action
to
address
racial
discrimination
in the
housing
market,
including
by
launching
a
first-of-its-kind
interagency
effort
to
address
inequity
in home
appraisals,
and
conducting
rulemaking
to
aggressively
combat
housing
discrimination.
Use
the
federal
government’s
purchasing
power to
grow
federal
contracting
with
small
disadvantaged
businesses
by 50
percent,
translating
to an
additional
$100
billion
over
five
years,
and
helping
more
Americans
realize
their
entrepreneurial
dreams.
The
Administration
is also
releasing
new
information
regarding
President
Biden’s
American
Jobs
Plan
proposals
to
create
jobs and
build
wealth
in
communities
of
color:
A
new $10
billion
Community
Revitalization
Fund to
support
community-led
civic
infrastructure
projects
that
create
innovative
shared
amenities,
spark
new
local
economic
activity,
provide
services,
build
community
wealth,
and
strengthen
social
cohesion.
$15
billion
for new
grants
and
technical
assistance
to
support
the
planning,
removal,
or
retrofitting
of
existing
transportation
infrastructure
that
creates
a
barrier
to
community
connectivity,
including
barriers
to
mobility,
access,
or
economic
development.
A
new
Neighborhood
Homes
Tax
Credit
to
attract
private
investment
in the
development
and
rehabilitation
of
affordable
homes
for low-
and
moderate-income
homebuyers
and
homeowners.
$5
billion
for the
Unlocking
Possibilities
Program,
an
innovative
new
grant
program
that
awards
flexible
and
attractive
funding
to
jurisdictions
that
take
steps to
reduce
needless
barriers
to
producing
affordable
housing
and
expand
housing
choices
for
people
with low
or
moderate
incomes.
$31
billion
in small
business
programs
that
will
increase
access
to
capital
for
small
businesses
and
provide
mentoring,
networking,
and
other
forms of
technical
assistance
to
socially
and
economically
disadvantaged
businesses
seeking
to
access
federal
contracts
and
participate
in
federal
research
and
development
investments.
Taking
Action
to End
Racial
Discrimination
in the
Housing
Market.
The
Biden-Harris
Administration
is
announcing
additional
steps to
end
discrimination
and bias
in the
housing
market.
More
than 50
years
since
the Fair
Housing
Act’s
passage,
access
to
wealth
through
homeownership
remains
persistently
unequal.
In his
first
week in
office,
President
Biden
issued a
memorandum
directing
the U.S.
Department
of
Housing
and
Urban
Development
(HUD) to
address
discrimination
in our
housing
market.
Today,
the
Administration
is
announcing
that it
is
taking
critical
steps
towards
realizing
the
President’s
directive.
HUD has
now sent
both its
proposed
rule on
countering
housing
practices
with
discriminatory
effects
and its
proposed
interim
final
rule on
the
legal
duty to
Affirmatively
Further
Fair
Housing
to HUD’s
Congressional
authorizing
committee
in the
Senate
and the
House of
Representatives
for
review
and will
publish
them in
the
Federal
Register
next
week.
These
proposed
rules
will
align
federal
enforcement
practice
with the
congressional
promise
in the
Fair
Housing
Act to
end
discrimination
in
housing
and will
collectively
provide
the
legal
framework
for HUD
to
require
private
and
public
entities
alike to
rethink
established
practices
that
contribute
to or
perpetuate
inequities.
Additionally,
the
Biden-Harris
Administration
is
taking
on
discrimination
in home
appraisals.
A 2018
Brookings
study
found
that
homes in
majority-Black
neighborhoods
are
often
valued
at tens
of
thousands
of
dollars
less
than
comparable
homes in
similar—but
majority-White—communities.
And the
crisis
is
worsening:
a recent
study
found
that the
gap
between
the
appraised
value of
homes in
predominantly
White
neighborhoods
compared
to
comparable
homes in
predominantly
Black
and
Latino
neighborhoods
nearly
doubled
between
1980 and
2015.
The
impact
of these
disparities
in home
appraisals
can be
sweeping,
limiting
homeowners’
ability
to
properly
benefit
from
refinancing
or
re-selling
their
homes at
higher
valuations
and
thereby
contributing
to the
already-sprawling
racial
wealth
gap.
President
Biden is
charging
Secretary
of
Housing
and
Urban
Development
Marcia
Fudge
with
leading
a
first-of-its-kind
interagency
initiative
to
address
inequity
in home
appraisals.
The
effort
will
seek to
utilize,
quickly,
the many
levers
at the
federal
government’s
disposal,
including
potential
enforcement
under
fair
housing
laws,
regulatory
action,
and
development
of
standards
and
guidance
in close
partnership
with
industry
and
state
and
local
governments,
to root
out
discrimination
in the
appraisal
and
homebuying
process.
These
are the
kinds of
policies
and
practices
that
keep
Black
families
in
Greenwood
and
across
the
nation
from
building
generational
wealth
through
homeownership.
Using
the
Government’s
Purchasing
Power to
Drive an
Additional
$100
Billion
to Small
Disadvantaged
Business
Owners.
The
federal
government
is the
largest
consumer
of goods
in the
world,
buying
everything
from
software
to
elevator
services
to
financial
and
asset
management,
Federal
procurement
is one
of our
most
powerful
tools to
advance
equity
and
build
wealth
in
underserved
communities.
And yet,
just
roughly
10
percent
of
federal
agencies’
total
eligible
contracting
dollars
typically
go to
small
disadvantaged
businesses
(SDB), a
category
under
federal
law for
which
Black-owned,
Latino-owned,
and
other
minority-owned
businesses
are
presumed
to
qualify.
Increasing
federal
spending
with
these
businesses
will
help
more
Americans
realize
their
entrepreneurial
dreams
and help
narrow
racial
wealth
gaps. In
2019,
for
instance,
the gap
in
business
ownership
between
Black
and
Latino
households,
relative
to White
households,
accounted
for 25
percent
of the
overall
racial
wealth
gap
between
these
groups.
Today,
the
Biden-Harris
Administration
is
launching
an
all-of-government
effort
to
expand
contracting
opportunities
for
underserved
small
businesses
across
the
country.
At its
center
is a new
goal:
increasing
the
share of
contracts
going to
small
disadvantaged
businesses
by 50
percent
by
2026—translating
to an
additional
$100
billion
to SDBs
over the
5-year
period.
To
achieve
this
goal,
agencies
will
assess
every
available
tool to
lower
barriers
to entry
and
increase
opportunities
for
small
businesses
and
traditionally-underserved
entrepreneurs
to
compete
for
federal
contracts.
The
impact
could be
historic:
all
told,
attainment
of the
new goal
will
represent
the
biggest
increase
in SDB
contracting
since
data was
first
collected
more
than 30
years
ago.
Detailing
the
President’s
Proposal
for
Historic
Investments
to Build
Wealth
and
Opportunity
More
Equitably,
Including
in
Communities
of
Color.
Today
the
Biden-Harris
Administration
is also
releasing
new
details
of
President
Biden’s
American
Jobs
Plan,
which
will
make
historic
investments
in
building
wealth
and
opportunity
in Black
and
other
communities
of
color.
The
American
Jobs
Plan
will:
Create a
Community
Revitalization
Fund to
Support
Community-Led
Civic
Infrastructure.
The
American
Jobs
Plan
calls
for a
new $10
billion
Community
Revitalization
Fund
based at
the
Department
of
Housing
and
Urban
Development
to
support
community-led
civic
infrastructure
projects
in
urban,
suburban,
and
rural
areas
that
create
innovative
shared
amenities,
spark
new
local
economic
activity,
provide
services,
build
community
wealth,
and
strengthen
social
cohesion.
The Fund
would be
targeted
to
economically
underdeveloped
and
underserved
communities,
including
those,
like
Greenwood,
that
suffer
from the
effects
of
persistent
poverty,
historic
economic
disinvestment,
and
ongoing
displacement
of
longtime
residents.
The
Community
Revitalization
Fund
will:
Invest
directly
in
community-led
projects
that
benefit
residents.
The
Community
Revitalization
Fund
will
provide
$500
million
in
planning
grants
and $9.5
billion
in
implementation
funds to
community-based
organizations,
non-profits,
community
development
corporations
(CDCs),
and
their
partners,
centering
the
community
as
direct
beneficiaries
and
drivers
of
project
outcomes.
These
grants
will
flow to
persistent
poverty
counties,
high-poverty
census
tracts,
and
areas
both at
risk of
or
rapidly
gentrifying.
Recognizing
that a
legacy
of
underinvestment
may mean
some
communities
lack
capacity
to build
complex
projects
or apply
for
federal
grants,
the Fund
will
seek
partnerships
with
philanthropy,
community
development
financial
institutions
(CDFIs),
and
local
government
to
provide
technical
assistance
and
capacity-building
support.
Activate
vacant
land and
buildings
to
create
community
amenities.
The
Community
Revitalization
Fund
will
support
a wide
range of
projects,
including:
upgrading
access
to
natural
areas,
adaptive
reuse of
vacant
buildings
and
storefronts
to
provide
low-cost
space
for
services
and
community
entrepreneurs
(such as
health
centers,
arts and
cultural
spaces,
job
training
programs,
business
incubators,
and
community
marketplaces),
and
removing
toxic
waste to
create
new
parks,
greenways,
urban
agriculture,
and
community
gardens.
The Fund
will
promote
the best
of
American
equitable
and
resilient
design,
advancing
the
Biden-Harris
Administration’s
Justice40
climate
goals
and
building
a strong
link
between
past and
future.
This
includes
in-fill
development
that
reknits
areas
damaged
by urban
renewal
and the
revitalization
of
commercial
corridors
with
locally-owned
businesses
and
services.
Strengthen
social
cohesion
and
build
community
wealth.
The
Community
Revitalization
Fund
will
prioritize
projects
that
strengthen
social
cohesion
through
shared
use and
civic
engagement,
and
build
community
wealth
and
equity
for
existing
residents.
The Fund
will
encourage
innovative
approaches
to
achieve
those
goals,
including
land
acquisition,
creation
of new
businesses
and
stronger
connections
to
existing
employment
centers,
establishment
of
community
investment
trusts
and
similar
wealth-building
models,
and
projects
that
provide
for
intercultural
and
intergenerational
mixing.
Spark
new
local
economic
activity
and
unlock
private
capital.
The
Community
Revitalization
Fund
will
support
projects
that
show
potential
to spark
new
local
commercial
activity
and
unlock
private
investment
for
further
equitable
development,
with a
strong
vision
of
continued
community
benefit.
The Fund
will
encourage
collaboration
with
CDFIs to
leverage
additional
resources,
and
integration
with
existing
federal
economic
development
resources
and tax
credits
to drive
upward
community
mobility.
The Fund
will
also
support
pilot
projects,
tactical
urbanism
projects,
pop-up
spaces
for
local
retail,
and
other
smaller-scale
interventions
that
build
activity
and
opportunity
for
residents.
Retrofit
Transportation
Infrastructure
to
Reconnect
Neighborhoods.Too
often,
past
transportation
investments
meant to
provide
greater
access
instead
divided
low-income
communities,
displacing
and
disconnecting
people
from
their
homes,
work,
and
families.
Recognizing
this
history
and
committed
to
redressing
it,
President
Biden
proposes
funding
specifically
for
neighborhoods
where
historic
transportation
investments
cut
people
off from
jobs,
schools,
and
businesses.
This
proposal
will
support
the
planning,
removal,
or
retrofitting
of
existing
transportation
infrastructure
that
creates
a
barrier
to
community
connectivity,
including
barriers
to
mobility,
access,
or
economic
development.
Specifically,
the
Reconnecting
Neighborhoods
Program
will
provide
$15
billion
in new
competitive
grants
for
planning,
technical
assistance
(TA) and
capital
investments:
Planning
and TA
grants.
These
can be
used for
planning
studies
and
public
engagement
activities
to
evaluate
the
feasibility
of
infrastructure
removal
or
retrofitting,
building
organizational
or
community
capacity,
transportation
planning,
and
identifying
innovative
solutions
to
infrastructure
challenges,
including
reconnecting
communities
impacted
by
disruptive
infrastructure
or those
lacking
safe,
reliable,
and
affordable
transportation
choices.
It will
prioritize
grantmaking
to
historically
disadvantaged,
underserved
and
overburdened
communities.
Capital
grants.
These
may be
used to
support
infrastructure
construction,
demolition,
and all
necessary
feasibility
and
related
planning
activities,
community
partnerships,
and
anti-displacement
and
equitable
neighborhood
revitalization
strategies
including
land
banking
and
equitable
transit-oriented
development.
The
minimum
grant
size
will be
$5
million
and will
prioritize
communities
most
impacted
by past
inequitable
infrastructure
development.
The
program
will
begin to
correct
past
harms
and
reduce
pollution,
create
more
public
and
green
spaces,
support
local
businesses,
increase
job
opportunities,
and lay
the
groundwork
for more
equitable
transit
systems
and
affordable
housing
solutions.
The
“Highway
to
Boulevards”
movement
has
already
seen 18
U.S.
cities
either
replace
or
commit
to
replace
a
freeway
with
more
urban
and
accessible
streets.
Cities
like
Rochester,
NY, have
chosen
to
remove
dividing
highways
and
replace
the
highway
with
infrastructure
that has
revived
and
reconciled
neighborhoods
decades
later.
President
Biden’s
proposed
investment
will
fund and
accelerate
reconnecting
neighborhoods
across
the
country.
In
addition,
the
Department
of
Transportation
will
establish
a new
Thriving
Communities
program
to
support
communities
with
eliminating
persistent
transportation
barriers
and
increasing
access
to jobs,
school,
and
businesses.
This
initiative
seeks to
invest
$5
billion
in
historically
marginalized
communities
and
bring
everyone
to the
table to
ensure
that
more
communities
have
clean,
robust,
and
affordable
transportation
options,
including
high-quality
transit,
equitable
neighborhood
revitalization,
and
other
enhancements
to
improve
neighborhood
quality
of life
and
address
climate
change.
Enact a
New
Neighborhood
Homes
Tax
Credit.
The
American
Jobs
Plan
calls
for a
new
Neighborhood
Homes
Tax
Credit
to
attract
private
investment
in the
development
and
rehabilitation
of
affordable
homes
for low-
and
moderate-income
homebuyers
and
homeowners.
These
tax
credits
will
increase
homeownership
opportunities
and
asset-building
for
underserved
communities,
reduce
blight
and
vacant
properties,
and
create
thousands
of
good-paying
jobs.
The
Neighborhood
Homes
Tax
Credit
will:
Encourage
investment
in homes
that
cost
more to
redevelop
than
they can
sell for
on the
open
market.
Across
the
country,
millions
of homes
are in
poor
condition
with
property
values
that are
too low
to
support
new
construction
or
substantial
renovation.
Approximately
40
percent
of U.S.
housing
stock is
at least
50 years
old and
more
than 15
million
properties
are
vacant
even as
families
struggle
to find
affordable
housing.
In many
neighborhoods,
these
properties
make it
difficult
to
attract
or
retain
local
homebuyers,
reducing
property
values
and
community
wealth.
Modeled
after
the
Low-Income
Housing
Tax
Credit
and the
New
Markets
Tax
Credit,
state
housing
finance
agencies
would
receive
an
annual
allocation
of
Neighborhood
Homes
Tax
Credits
based on
population.
Each
state’s
housing
finance
agency
would
then
award
tax
credits
to
project
sponsors—developers,
lenders,
or local
governments—through
a
competitive
application
process.
Sponsors
would
use the
credits
to raise
investment
capital
for
their
projects,
and the
investors
could
claim
the
credits
against
their
federal
income
tax when
the
homes
are sold
and
occupied
by
eligible
homebuyers.
These
tax
credits
would
cover
the
difference
between
total
development
costs
(including
acquisition,
rehabilitation,
demolition,
and
construction)
and the
sales
price.
This
would,
for
example,
make it
financially
viable
to spend
$120,000
acquiring
and
rehabilitating
a vacant
property
that
would
only
sell for
$100,000
on the
open
market
by
offering
a
$20,000
tax
credit
to cover
the
difference.
Bolster
homeownership
rates
for low-
and
moderate-income
homebuyers
in
underserved
communities,
while
protecting
against
gentrification.
The U.S.
is home
to stark
and
persistent
disparities
in
homeownership
and
wealth.
Across
the
country,
just 49
percent
of
Hispanic
Americans
and 45
percent
of Black
Americans
own
their
own
homes,
compared
to 74
percent
of White
Americans.
Hispanic
and
Black
households
also
have
just a
fraction
of the
wealth
of their
White
counterparts.
As home
prices
rise,
the
Neighborhood
Homes
Tax
Credit
will
make a
generational
investment
in
homeownership
affordability.
Specifically,
only
homes
that are
located
in
census
tracts
with
poverty
rates of
at least
130
percent
of the
area
poverty
rate,
median
family
income
below 80
percent
of area
median
income,
and
median
home
values
lower
than the
area
median
value
are
eligible
for the
credit.
This
covers
approximately
1 in 4
census
tracts
nationwide
– the
most
underserved
communities
in
America.
Homes
that are
redeveloped
using
the
credit
may only
sell for
four
times
the area
median
family
income,
and
homebuyers
cannot
have
incomes
exceeding
140
percent
of the
area
median
family
income.
This
will
enable
low- and
moderate-income
buyers –
including
homebuyers
of color
– to
purchase
their
own
homes
and
build
wealth.
Incentivize
Ending
Exclusionary
Zoning
and
Expanding
Housing
Choices.
Exclusionary
zoning
laws –
like
minimum
lot
sizes,
mandatory
parking
requirements,
and
prohibitions
on
multifamily
housing
–
inflate
housing
and
construction
costs
and lock
families
out of
neighborhoods
with
more
opportunities.
In the
American
Jobs
Plan,
President
Biden is
calling
on
Congress
to enact
the
Unlocking
Possibilities
Program,
an
innovative,
new $5
billion
competitive
grant
program
that
awards
flexible
and
attractive
funding
to
jurisdictions
that
take
concrete
steps to
eliminate
needless
barriers
to
producing
affordable
housing
and
expand
housing
choices
for
people
with low
or
moderate
incomes.
The
fund has
several
key
features
to
support
locally-led
efforts
to
advance
zoning
reforms:
Grant
program
for
community
engagement,
technical
assistance
and
analysis
that
will
help
communities
identify
the most
powerful
levers
to
produce
more
affordable
housing;
Investment
and
incentives
to
implement
land-use
and
zoning
policies
that
remove
needless
barriers
to
needed
housing;
and
Extensive
evaluation
and
development
agenda
to
identify
the
policy
changes
that
most
effectively
encourage
affordable
housing
production.
Communities
that
qualify
for
implementation
and
investment
awards
will
have
access
to
flexible
funding
that
help
support
public
services
in
neighborhoods
where
new
affordable
housing
is being
developed
and that
benefit
all
community
members.
The goal
of these
efforts
will be
to
increase
the
production
of
affordable
housing,
expanding
access
to good
jobs and
powering
inclusive
economic
growth.
Invest
$31
Billion
to Scale
Up
Efforts
to
Support
Minority-Owned
Small
Businesses.
Too many
small
businesses
owned by
people
of color
struggle
to
access
loans
and
federal
programs
that can
help
them
grow and
succeed.
President
Biden
has
proposed
a
historic
effort
to
tackle
these
persistent
challenges
and
empower
small
business
creation
and
expansion
in
communities
of
color.
Specifically,
the
President’s
American
Jobs
Plan
will
invest
$30
billion
in new
Small
Business
Administration
(SBA)
initiatives
that
will
reduce
barriers
to small
business
ownership
and
success.
These
initiatives
will
increase
access
to
capital
by
establishing
a new
direct
loan
program
for the
smallest
businesses,
developing
new loan
products
to
support
small
manufacturers
and
businesses
that
invest
in clean
energy,
and
launching
a new
Small
Business
Investment
Corporation
that
will
make
early
stage
equity
investments
in small
businesses
with
priority
for
those
owned by
socially
and
economically
disadvantaged
individuals.
The
American
Jobs
Plan
will
also
invest
billions
of
dollars
in SBA
technical
assistance
programs
that
incubate
and
offer
mentoring
and
technical
assistance
to 8(a)
firms,
reinforce
the
American
subcontracting
network
to
create
pathways
to prime
contracting,
encourage
Fortune
500
firms to
diversify
their
procurements,
and
bring
more
socially
and
economically
disadvantaged
businesses
into
federal
research
and
development
programs.
These
investments
will
also
include
an
innovative
new $1
billion
grant
program
through
the
Minority
Business
Development
Agency
that
will
help
minority-owned
manufacturers
access
private
capital.
Advertise With Us:
Certified Minority Business Enterprise
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