Historical Redlining and Contemporary Federal Place-Based Policy: A Case of Compensatory or Compounding Neighborhood Inequality?

Residential Redlining, Neighborhood Trajectory, and Equity of Breast and Colorectal Cancer Care

“…13 Redlining originated with the Home Owners' Loan Act of 1933 which sought to provide government-backed mortgages to support American homeowners during the "great depression." 14 The Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) was formed and created maps in hundreds of cities across the United States, ranking neighborhoods based on perceived loan worthiness. 10 Redlined areas were neighborhoods considered the highest risk of loan default.…”

“…The legacy of redlining lingers, influencing both the racial and socioeconomic makeup of communities in the present day, including average credit scores, probability of living in high poverty, and probability of upward mobility. [10][11][12][13][14] However, these historic policies did not alone dictate current structures but strengthened an inequitable foundation for decades of banking, real estate, city planning, and other policies to ignore, improve, or double down on the legacy of redlining. [15][16][17] Recent efforts to improve historically oppressed communities have revitalized some areas but have also further marginalized minoritized individuals in the community.…”

“…[15][16][17] Recent efforts to improve historically oppressed communities have revitalized some areas but have also further marginalized minoritized individuals in the community. 14 These dynamic aspects of communities, each shaped by their past, can be overlooked in studies evaluating or simply controlling for historic characteristics or current socioeconomic conditions in isolation. The implications are especially significant for neighborhoods that may have seen investment or improvement in socioeconomic measures as a whole but do so through isolation or segregation of previous residents.…”

“…Thus, while multiple factors could contribute to neighborhoods being redlined, all predominantly Black neighborhoods were de facto graded as being hazardous. The legacy of redlining lingers, influencing both the racial and socioeconomic makeup of communities in the present day, including average credit scores, probability of living in high poverty, and probability of upward mobility 10–14 . However, these historic policies did not alone dictate current structures but strengthened an inequitable foundation for decades of banking, real estate, city planning, and other policies to ignore, improve, or double down on the legacy of redlining 15–17 .…”

“…However, these historic policies did not alone dictate current structures but strengthened an inequitable foundation for decades of banking, real estate, city planning, and other policies to ignore, improve, or double down on the legacy of redlining 15–17 . Recent efforts to improve historically oppressed communities have revitalized some areas but have also further marginalized minoritized individuals in the community 14 . These dynamic aspects of communities, each shaped by their past, can be overlooked in studies evaluating or simply controlling for historic characteristics or current socioeconomic conditions in isolation.…”