BUFFALO, N.Y. — Main Street in Buffalo is the dividing line between East and West Buffalo, but you also may notice a difference in the housing stock of these two neighborhoods.
It's the product of a long history of redlining.
Redlining is an illegal practice where residents are getting refused a loan or insurance because the neighborhood is thought to be a poor financial risk.
Despite that, we still see the effects of it today.
"Part of the disparity is the education part, the unknown," says the President of Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors, Rosalind Burgin.
First-time homebuyers can get discouraged after they fail to meet qualifications, like having enough money. Those potential buyers, however, may not know there are grants like the Down Payment Assistance Program or the Buffalo East Homeowner Improvement Program to help get them through the door.
"I don't think in my lifetime that the discrimination and the redlining will go away. I think we do have an opportunity to make a difference," says Burgin.
Redlining is an illegal practice of denying mortgages to minority applicants as well as steering those applicants to less desirable real estate. According to Forbes, only 35% of Black Americans owned homes between 1950 and 1970. Those numbers then jumped to 42% nationwide after the fair housing act went into law in 1968. Here in the Buffalo-Niagara region, that number is 36% today.
"Home ownership is the signal most significant source of wealth in the united states. So when you look at rates, you know that the Black community is being excluded," says Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity Christopher Kennedy.
Now houses are being gentrified, modernized, and renovated, raising rents in once more affordable neighborhoods. It's forcing long-time residents out, and Kennedy believes it's another form of redlining.