Good housing makes for good health
By Kirsten Wysen
“We all lose ‘when so many of our educators, child care workers and first responders live so far away from where they work that it compromises their ability to deliver on the jobs they have been hired for…and when our grown children can’t afford to live in the once solidly working-class neighborhoods that have now become too pricey for ‘starter’ families.’”
High Point neighborhood, Seattle, WA. © Mithun
The Communities Count Equity Blog series explores a variety of factors that contribute to health inequities. These range from education to housing and from transportation to public safety because health inequities are often symptoms of policies and historical dynamics within these fields outside the health care system. Policies that have led to inequitable access to financial security are important root causes of health inequities. Income and wealth contribute to health and well-being and the most common way Americans gain this financial security is through the purchase of their homes. But financing, real estate, landlord and advertising practices over the last 60 years have combined to create more home ownership and rental opportunities for Whites than they have for people of color. The accumulation of these systematic differences in access to housing, whether rented or purchased, shapes the health outcomes we see today in King County and across the country.
National trends in homeownership by race, United States, 1960 to 2017
In 2017, 72% of Whites in the US owned a home compared to 42% of Black and 47% of Hispanic Americans. These rates of homeownership by race and ethnicity have not changed appreciably since 1960, even after the Fair Housing Act passed in 1968 prohibiting discriminatory practices in housing transactions.
Copyright © October 2019. Urban Institute, Explaining the Black-White Homeownership Gap
Local trends in homeownership by race, King County, WA, 1970 to 2015
The racial homeownership gaps in King County are even bigger than they are at the national level. Locally, approximately 64% of White King County residents have owned homes since 1970. But the rate of among Black residents fell from 49% in 1970 to 28% in 2015. Similarly, the rate of homeownership in King County among Hispanic residents fell from 50% in 1970 to 34% in 2015.
Figure 1. Gene Balk, “The rise and dramatic fall of King County’s black homeowners,” Seattle Times, June 12, 2017.
King County homeowners have seen wealth grow and renters have experienced increased costs
Today, about 59% of King County households are occupied by homeowners and 41% are occupied by renters. Homeowners in the region have seen almost a doubling of the value of their real estate asset as the typical home value has increased from $235,000 in 2000 to $407,000 in 2016. Renters, on the other hand, have seen their housing expenses almost double as the cost of a typical two-bedroom apartment has risen from $740 in 2000 to $1,320 in 2016. Regional growth in income has not kept pace with either the increasing value of homes or the rising costs of rentals; median income rose at about half the pace (from $53,200 in in 1999 to $78,800 in 2016).
Communities Count housing data show that the percentage of homeowners who have affordable mortgages has been rising in King County since 2009, from 57% in 2009 to 71% in 2017. “Affordable” means the household pays 30% or less of their income on their mortgage. However, the overall trend masks differences experienced by racial/ethnic groups. Only 59% of Black homeowners have affordable mortgages compared to 71% of White homeowners during the period from 2013 to 2017.
Many fewer renters have affordable housing costs. Only 53% of renters pay less than 30% of their income on housing—a rate unchanged since 2005. Since rents have risen during this period, it suggests that average income of renters has risen since 2005 as higher income people moved in and lower income residents moved out of the county.
History of the denial of home ownership opportunities for people of color
With homeownership conferring such a large intergenerational financial benefit, it is important to look more closely at how US residents purchase homes. Since the early 1900s, laws have promoted the segregation of white and black renters and homeowners. In 1933, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation made redlining federal policy by extending government home loans on favorable terms in white neighborhoods and prohibiting loans from being made in majority person-of-color neighborhoods—shaded red on city maps of the day. The idea that property values, and thus loan risks, were tied to the racial makeup of the neighborhood was perpetuated by banks and real estate agents until at least 1968.
Seattle Open Housing Campaign
From 1959 to 1968, community organizers worked to open the housing market to people of all race/ethnicities in Seattle. The first Seattle City Councilmembers of color, Wing Luke, elected in 1962 and Sam Smith, elected in 1967, lobbied to ban discriminatory housing transactions. In 1968, the Seattle City Council passed an ordinance banning housing discrimination by race and gender.
Photos: Seattle City Councilmembers Sam Smith (left) and Wing Luke (right),1960s. Courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives and The Wing Luke Museum.
Racial discrimination today
Inequities in access to houses, condos and apartments takes place through the combined practices of credit rating agencies, lenders, landlords and real estate agents. Credit scores drive mortgage and landlord decisions, and these scores are disproportionately lower and more likely to be missing for people of color compared to Whites. The City of Seattle found in 2018 that, contrary to federal and local law, 38% of secret shoppers with the same renter profile except for being Black experienced worse treatment by rental agents, such as being told no units were available, rents were more expensive or the units would be available at later dates compared to White test applicants. In 2017, similar tests showed 61% of Black renters were provided less advantageous information by landlords. Similar discriminatory results were found and reported in the Seattle Times in 2014 and 2015.
Algorithms can perpetuate biases
Algorithms used by social media advertising and financial technology companies are playing new roles in increasing racial segregation. Facebook, for example, permits racial profiling by housing advertisers and will only stop doing so at the end of 2019 as part of a lawsuit settlement. Many landlords are turning to third party companies to screen applicants, and these firms rely on credit scores and other publicly available information to create lists for the landlord to reach out to. Algorithms and machine-learning have been shown to maintain and deepen historical biases if corrections aren’t made to address discriminatory patterns from the past.
Affordable housing progress
The availability of abundant affordable places to live is an asset for the regional economy and it can reduce long commutes and carbon pollution. Young people, older adults, low-wage workers and others with lower incomes play important roles in a balanced and thriving community; when they can live close to where they work or study, the whole community benefits. There are many ongoing efforts increase the supply of affordable homes to buy or rent in our region. Significant renter protections were put in place across the state last summer. Communities of Opportunity is a partner in efforts underway to reduce and eliminate inequities in access to affordable housing.
Housing is a vital contributor to health and well-being, and King County residents will experience better health, and perhaps even other unexpected benefits, as we work to make sure everyone has a safe and affordable place to live.
The Seattle Foundation and King County’s healthy community partnership, Communities of Opportunity, aims to eliminate inequities by race and by place in employment, health, housing, income and wealth, and social environments—an important set of social determinants.
This blog post was sponsored by Communities of Opportunity.