Everyone deserves housing.
And yet, current and historical practices of exclusionary policy, rising rents, and slow development have contributed to the affordable housing shortage, inequitable evictions, and broad displacement that make up the “housing crisis” today. Whether or not you’ve heard of this term, it's important to understand the elements that make this such a complex problem.
We believe that knowledge can empower positive change— this crisis is complex, but this is a great place to get started. Understanding the legacy of the past will help contextualize the present, and work towards a more just future. We hope you'll come away with an understanding of the affordable housing crisis by exploring this case study of Richmond, CA.
Located in Contra Costa County in the East San Francisco Bay Area, the city of Richmond is racially and economically diverse. Richmond feels like the average American city. A small, working-class suburban community, it went through a period of post-WWII industrialization and has a vibrant town known for grassroots engagement, including in the housing space.
*statistics of 2021 Census
Photo credit: Richmond, CA Wikipedia
Like many cities across the United States, life in Richmond is different depending on who you are and where you live. We see this most clearly by looking at the different impacts of the housing crisis on different groups of people, and most starkly in the housing outcomes between White and Black populations. Let’s look at some of these differences across zoning, renting vs. homeownership, and evictions.
Zoning laws shape how we live. From commercial shopping centers to farms to new housing, they govern what can be built, and where. These highly prescriptive rules dictate construction between single-family homes and dense multi-family apartment complexes. Research by the Othering and Belonging Institute shows that residing in single-family zones is highly correlated with better quality-of-life: in fact, they state, “...cities with high levels of single-family zoning have greater resources in virtually every statistic we are able to measure.”
However, residence in single family zones break sharply on racial lines. White residents are more likely to live in single-family zones, while Black residents are more likely to reside in multifamily zones.
Homeownership is one of the primary methods for building generational wealth and accessing the improved quality-of-life that comes with it. Owning a home can provide greater stability than renting by allowing residents to stay in their community, build long-term equity, and to invest in their community’s education and other public services through their home’s property taxes. Like many other cities in California, Richmond’s homeownership has often been restricted to wealthy white neighborhoods and maintained through policies such as Proposition 13, which defines state increase in property tax.
In Richmond, white residents own homes at more than 2x the rate of Black residents and 1.3x that of Hispanic residents. Meanwhile, white residents rent less. Compared to white residents, Hispanic residents rent almost 2x more, and Black residents rent around 1.5x more.
Who is evicted is related to one’s socioeconomic and geographic reality. Eviction is one of the most common methods of displacement, which is when a resident is forced to move against their will. Displacement can have negative effects ranging from worse physical and mental health, more emergency room visits, lower educational outcomes for children, food insecurity, to higher rates of future homelessness.
Using data from when tenants are officially removed from their home by the county sheriff from January 2017 to March 2022, the Eviction Research Network finds that there are significant racial disparities in evictions in Richmond. Note that this dataset is a severe undercount of the actual number of evictions occurring, but still represents the overall trend.
While eviction moratoria during the COVID-19 pandemic reduced overall evictions in 2020, Black and Hispanic residents are still evicted at higher rates compared to White and Asian residents. In 2017, there were 3.5 Black and 2.5 Hispanic evictions for every 1 White eviction. In 2021, there were 3.5 Black evictions and 4 Hispanic eviction for every White eviction.
All of these factors are tied with financial instability and housing vulnerability, which is exacerbated by an eviction.
These disparate outcomes for Black and White populations did not occur by accident: Much of the racial disparity in housing today is due to the historical legacy of exclusionary policies, redlining, and segregation.
Restrictive covenants, like the one to the left, explicitly restricted the sale or rent of properties to non-white residents. While unenforceable, the text can still be found in some leases today.
Redlining excluded racial minorities, especially Black residents, by limiting their ability to obtain loans and own their homes. While not explicitly racist, the outcomes often were. Banks and federal loan providers graded predominantly Black neighborhoods as “red”, limiting financial investment. White neighborhoods received “green” grades and favorable access to credit, leading to segregation. This process was common throughout the United States, including the Bay Area, pictured in the map below.
The systemic injustices of the past have created disparities not easily unraveled. An equitable future requires coordinated effort and investment. In reality, there are many actors in this space whose interests are often directly at odds. Whether intentionally or not, interactions between local government, the general public, and housing developers are why affordable housing continues to be an issue.
Local governments have a mandate to plan for and meet housing needs. How plans are implemented is dependent on the priorities, resources, capacity of the city's government, and other actors like developers and voters. A lack of funding for affordable housing is both a national and local complaint. Richmond's county (Contra Costa), for example, has been criticized in particular for not following through on project expectations by disproportionately falling short of developing housing for lower-income households.
The trend that Contra Costa County exhibits here of disproportionally under-developing housing planned for very low and low income households mirrors the rest of the Bay Area. The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), sets goals for housing developments based on population growth and housing needs. Between 2007 and 2014, the Great Recession affected the ability to finance affordable housing, and was further impacted by an overall decrease in funding from state and federal sources.
The community plays an important role in how local governments implement plans. Housing bonds fund loans for developers to create affordable housing— all this must be approved by voters. Community engagement on local and neighborhood plans affect the housing goals of the city and county overall. For example, opposition against multifamily development by current residents, commonly referred to as “Not in My Backyard” (NIMBY) opposition, impacts the development timeline of projects by an average of 7.4 months and adds an average 5.6% increase in total development costs. Community engagement can also inspire funding to go to projects that support communities aspirations, such as creating affordable housing.
It's important for the community to participate in local elections and engage with housing discussions. After all, votes can shape communities.
Multifamily developments must adhere to a variety of regulations in order to protect the health and safety of residents, and ensure the integrity of the building and surrounding area. Adhering to regulations is extremely important to protect the public. Unfortunately, red tape can also delay development and comes at a tangible expense to the project. This creates a lack of incentive and opportunity for developers to build affordable, multifamily housing.
Conflicting standards across regulations and overly time consuming review processes are inflating the cost of development, limiting who can afford to contribute to multifamily housing. At present, regulation compliance constitutes an average of 40% of a project's total development cost — a high percentage considering the additional cost of land, labor, and materials.
Multifamily development is increasingly being conducted by large corporations who have easy access to funding, rather than smaller, local developers who may want to invest in the community. There needs to be a balance between regulations that protect the public and encourage affordable housing development.
The housing crisis impacts everything—there is no “one size fits all” solution. Thinking of all the work needed to create affordable housing, it can feel impossible to know where to begin.
Well, you just took the first step by learning about the history behind the housing crisis, how it manifests today, and what solutions might look like. Becoming an informed citizen leads to informed action—action that can make a difference.
Thank you for allowing us to educate you on the housing crisis. If you are feeling empowered and ready to do more, we’ve compiled a list of next steps. We invite you to click on each window of the multi-family home below to reveal an action you can take to help facilitate a future of affordable housing for all. We’re all on this journey together.
The best way to support your action is to keep informed. You can engage with similar educational materials.
Anti-Eviction Mapping Project: AEMP
There are numerous organizations you can support and volunteer with to help those impacted by the Affordable Housing Crisis. The list below is some local to the Richmond area.
So much of this crisis is enforced by policy. Your vote on zoning laws, and other housing related policy matters—getting politically involved is a way to shape the future. Here is a list of resources for to understand and protect housing rights.
Understand the city's vis-a-vis housing by learning about it's rich history. Here are a few options.
Take the East Bay Yesterday walking tour.
Visit the Richmond Museum of History & Culture.
