The looming eviction crisis is one of the most pressing and potentially catastrophic issues for people of color today. Currently ,,30-40M people are facing eviction, and this is disproportionately impacting Black citizens.

Why does this matter?

The history of housing discrimination for black Americans is long, and continues to this day. Some details from major publications and media outlets:

• People of color are twice as likely to be renters, and are also more likely to be low-income and rental cost-burdened. ,Studies from cities across the U.S. have shown that people of color, particularly Black & Latinx, make up about 8,0% of those facing eviction (,source)
• Home ownership follows suit. Per Time Magazine (June 2020), Black families are still denied mortgages at a higher rate than white families: "the gap between Black and White homeownership rates was the highest it had been in 50 years" (,,source)
• Black Americans typically have a ,,harder time getting approved for home loans than other races and are ,,often targeted by high-risk lenders who charge higher rates
• The New York Times reports that black Americans get "higher mortgage rates even with equal credit worthiness, and homes in Black neighborhoods do not appreciate at the same rate as those in white areas” (,,source)
• Even today Black Americans remain the most segregated group of people in America, and are five times as likely to live in high-poverty neighborhoods as white Americans (,,source)

How could we tackle this?

• In the immediate term:
  • Per Politico, a critical step is for eviction moratoriums to be extended. Housing advocates also say that the only way to ensure people can stay in their homes is to provide rental assistance payments. (,source)
  • Additionally, on the Landlords' side, "industry advocates support giving tenants rental assistance payments to avoid forcing landlords to pick up the slack."
• In the long term:
  • We need to invest much more into low income housing tax credits (LIHTC), which directly impact on the existence of affordable housing options. Expanding funding for housing vouchers, coupled with proven methods around Professional LIHTC Guidance -- has shown to be one of the most effective approaches to reducing long term poverty, and increasing earning potential in those who grow up in it (,source)
  • Black families, still struggling with the effects of systemic economic disenfranchisement, benefit when they have support and guidance in how to most effectively utilize their LIHTC credits. Landlords also benefit from understanding the program benefits
  • As outlined in The Atlantic (,source) and other publications, research shows the importance of “Housing Navigators” for those using LIHTC credits. These guides help point program participants toward areas with relatively high opportunity, help with credit-related issues, and even provide neighborhood tours where needed
• In Feb 2019, a $28 million experimental LIHTC / Housing Navigator program enjoyed overwhelming bipartisan support, and estimates show that the program will increase each child’s lifetime earnings by $88,000 (,source)
• However, this program needs to be expanded to the 2.2 million families that receive HUD housing vouchers every year, following successful pilots in the past year
• In the long term, we could also match the ,,Veterans Affairs (VA) Loan Program. This program would provide a $0 down mortgage option specifically to proven descendants of African American slaves. Eligibility could be determined by genetic evidence through trusted genetic tests (23andMe, Ancestry.com), with a requirement of some minimum, proven percentage of African American slave heritage (>X%)

Connect with your local elected officials using our ,,step-by-step guide, engage with others in ,,The Forum, or through social channels using the hashtags below.

#BlackNewDealHousing

The ongoing burden of American slavery is largely economic. Survivors of slavery never received the type of reparations that Japanese, Native American, Jewish, or European communities (New Deal & Marshall Plan) received. Why is this so crucial now? As reported by ,The New York Times, (June 2020), with Covid-19, Black Americans face a financial catastrophe unlike any in nearly a century. They had already lost the largest share of their wealth of all racial groups as a result of the last recession, and have struggled the most to recover. Black citizens are also the only racial group whose household median income is less than it was in 2000.

Why does this matter?

• Today Black families have ,,10 times less wealth, and ,,40% less household income versus comparable white families
• Already more than half of black adults are out of work. Black businesses are withering, and their owners were almost completely shut out of the federal paycheck-protection program — just 12% of Black and Latino business owners who applied for the small-business loans received the full amounts they requested (,,source)
• The racial wealth gap is about the same as it was in the 1950s .. The typical black household today is poorer than 80 percent of white households. “No progress has been made over the past 70 years in reducing income and wealth inequalities between black and white households” (,,source)
• We need to pass legislation (including funding) to study the economic, health and psychological effects of slavery on descendants of slaves, to find the appropriate method of restitution, and to deliver a formal apology for the institution of slavery
• ,This year, 142 members of Congress have co-sponsored H.R. 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act... compared with only two members in 2014 (,,source)
• H.R. 40 would form a committee of 13 members of Congress who would compile a report of findings and recommendations on the issue and send it to Congress

How can we tackle it?

• We need to continue this momentum, and get this important bill to the finish line. It has been sitting in the Senate, waiting for a vote
• Engage with your elected Senators to enact H.R. 40 using ,,our step-by-step guide
• Send the ACLU’s form ,,here to your officials, and consider signing ,this Change.org petition
• Engage on social channels and in ,The Forum; add ideas, comments, and facts, to help us get to the best solution, using #HR40

How else can we tackle this?

• Reparations should include a commitment to vigorously enforcing existing civil rights prohibitions against housing, educational, and employment discrimination, as well as targeted investments in government-constructed segregated black communities and the segregated schools that serve a disproportionate number of black children. They must also include individual cash payments to descendants of the enslaved in order to close the wealth gap. (,,source)
• Help further the conversation, in determining solutions, by engaging in ,,The Forum, or via your social channels. Some potential approaches:
  • Reparation Land Grants. Black people were prohibited from participation in national land grants, homestead acts, and other land grabs afforded white men. If they were fortunate enough to acquire land, it was often stolen from them. Many were intimidated out of living in rural areas. Field Order 15 to provide 40 acres and a mule to freed slaves was repealed under suspicious circumstance, leaving black people without even the basic building block of self-sufficiency --- land. The federal government owns roughly 640 million acres, about 28% of the 2.27 billion acres of land in the United States. There are ~38 million African-Americans (or 12% of the population), and the gov’t could set aside 76M acres of Federal Land, and make it available for purchase by the descendants of slaves with 0% interest loans, at 3/5th the prevailing valuation of the land
  • Revisit 40 Acres & A Mule. A recurring theme has been returning to the first official government action.
    • The amount of cropland required to meet that commitment today has a value of about $160bn (0.7% of American GDP in 2019). (,,source)
    • Thomas Craemer, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Connecticut, used 40 acres and a mule — but a different method in a ,,study published last year. He used the current average price of agricultural land and figured that 40 acres of farmland and buildings would amount to roughly $123,000. If all of the 4 million slaves counted in the 1860 census had been able to take advantage of that offer, it would have totaled more than $486B today — or ~$16,200 for each descendant
    • In another approach, William Darity takes into account compounding interest and inflation, putting the present value at $2.6 trillion. Assuming roughly 30 million descendants of ex-slaves, he concluded it worked out to about $80,000 a person (,,source). Considering that the United States budget this year is $4.7 trillion, this amount would need to be spread consistently over a period of decades (,,source)
  • Non-cash Investment Targets. Some economists argue that reparations should fund training and education programs, or subsidize business lending
    • Some point to “baby bonds”, which would be targeted at poor children and help them pay for university or to start up a business
    • Money paid out to Japanese ex-internees has been used to fund academic chairs and historical archives. Reparations from Germany pay for food and medicine for Holocaust survivors (,,source)
    • A Social Innovation Fund could create a private/public partnership to fund such Opportunity Centers. Moving to Opportunity grants and K-12 education savings accounts would help minorities to move to integrated schools. ,,Collective impact structures could coordinate ,,local action and use data to find what works. (,source)
    • ,Community land trusts let low-income families buy homes on land owned by non-profits, which vow to use the land for the good of the community. This lets homeowners gain equity and ensures that the property remains affordable for future home buyers (,source)
  • 100 Year Tax Holiday for Descendants of Slaves. Eligibility for any tax holiday could be determined by genetic evidence. William A. Darity Jr., an economist at Duke University and a leading scholar on reparations, suggests two qualifying conditions: having at least one ancestor who was enslaved in the United States, and having identified oneself as African-American on a legal document for at least a decade before the approval of any reparations (,,source)
  • Criminal Labor Reparations Tax. It is well known that many of the Fortune 1000 have histories that are connected to slave era labor. These companies owe citizens who are survivors of slavery, and the nation that will need to pay reparations, their fair share of the cost. The federal gov't could establish a 1.5% tax on corporations and their subsidiaries/derivatives that are proven to have benefited from free slave labor

Further the conversation, and help determine solutions, by engaging in ,The Forum, via your social channels, or engage with your elected officials using ,our step-by-step guide.

#BlackNewDealReparations

Time to move the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act forward. ,National and state elections should also be national holidays for all people.

Why does this matter?

Elections are the lifeblood of democracy. The Senate must honor the life’s work of John Lewis, and begin hearings on the Voting Rights Advancement Act. It has been sitting in the Senate, who refuse to acknowledge it. While outright voter suppression tactics (poll taxes, literacy tests) no longer exist, there are states that have imposed voter ID laws, gerrymandered districts, purged voter rolls, and moved / closed polling locations, among other methods to manipulate elections. These impact voters of color the most.

Furthermore, if there is no national holiday for voting, then those with less schedule flexibility (typically hourly labor, the less wealthy) are systematically discouraged from participating in elections. Making the day a holiday means that people can vote whenever it is convenient, but also more polling places, including in schools, can be more readily available, with more poll workers able to serve.

• Most states hold their general elections to sync with the federal election date of the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November.. a date was set in legislation in 1845 to make sure that in an agrarian society, people could travel to vote and be back home both for Market Day and for the Sabbath. It has not been changed for 175 years! (,source)
• Voter turnout has plummeted over 150 years, and during presidential election years has fallen from 80 percent in 1888 to 60 percent in 2016 (source)
• Only around half of America’s voting-age population cast a ballot in the last presidential election, a number that hasn’t changed significantly for decades (source)
• In some countries, like Australia, attendance at the polls is mandatory -- if you don't show up and you don't have a written excuse for illness or travel, you are subject to a fine
• So far Delaware, Hawaii, Kentucky, New York, and most recently Virginia signed into law a measure that, among other things, makes Election Day a state holiday
• Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the House proposal a “power grab"... "Just what America needs, another paid holiday.” (source) However, Veterans Day is already a paid federal holiday, so tying these together seems to make even more sense

How can we tackle this?

• Send the NAACP's "Fast Action" form on the John Lewis Voting Rights Act here
• We suggest backing a proposal at the federal level to make Veterans Day also our Election Day -- "honoring veterans who fought, shed blood and died to protect and preserve our system, starting with the right to vote" (,source)
• A 2018 ,Pew survey found that 71 percent of Democrats and 59 percent of Republicans now support such a proposal
• Engage directly with your elected officials using ,our step-by-step guide
• Sign ,this petition (to US Senate), and inform decision makers in your company through sites like ElectionDay.org to recognize election day as a holiday
• Engage on social channels and in ,The Forum; add ideas, comments, and facts, to help us get to the best solution

#BlackNewDealVote

Make June 19th a National Holiday. Juneteenth, the 19th day of June each year, is celebrated as the day that news of the end of American slavery reached the entire US. This date set the country on its path to achieving its promise of life, liberty and justice for all. This date should be paired with the 4th of July as one of America's most important holidays.

Why does this matter?

• Juneteenth is “the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.. It has always been both a day of remembrance and an opportunity for African-Americans to honor their history and celebrate Black culture.” (source)
• Over the past two decades, campaigns to get states to honor and recognize Juneteenth have led a majority of states to recognize the day as a ceremonial holiday
• As of 2020, 47 states and the District of Columbia have all passed legislation recognizing Juneteenth as either a state holiday or day of observance (Hawaii, North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states that do not recognize the holiday) (source)
• Texas was the only state to recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday, until New York and Virginia announced recently they were making it a paid holiday for their employees
• Private organizations such as Nike, the NFL, Target, Twitter and Lyft have made similar moves to recognize Juneteenth as a holiday, as a permanent paid holiday (,source)

How can we tackle this?

• Reach out to your elected officials about passing The Juneteenth National Independence Act, using ,our step-by-step guide. The Senate version of this bill has attracted 50 bipartisan co-sponsors, but is awaiting a potential vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee (,source)
• Sign ,this Change.org petition,, and support NextGenAmerican's efforts
• Engage on social channels and in ,The Forum; add ideas, comments, and facts, to help us get to the best outcome

#JuneteenthHoliday

Establish federal use of force guidelines, and a federal mechanism to enforce the standards.

Why does this matter? Around 1,000 people are killed by law enforcement every year. (,source) This number can be reduced significantly with proper legal incentives and police training.

• Black men face 1 in 1,000 odds of being killed by the police over the course of their lives, over 2x as likely vs white or latino citizens, and ~5X asians (source)
• Black people are about twice as likely as white people to be pulled over by law enforcement for a traffic stop; Even when black men and white men are convicted of the same crime, they can expect a prison sentence that is 20 percent longer (source)
• 56 percent of black Americans said they had a great deal or fair amount of confidence in police, compared to the 78 percent of white Americans who said the same. And confidence was even lower among young black Americans — 49 (,source, graphs)
• The sight of a police officer makes 60 percent of black Americans feel “less secure.” About one-third — 22 percent — of white Americans said the same, while 32 percent of white Americans said the sight of an officer makes them feel more secure, a sentiment shared by only 5 percent of black Americans (,source)

How can we tackle this?

Having clear use of force guidelines will allow for enforcement and accountability of law enforcement officers. We need to move out of subjective standards

• Reach out to your Senate representatives about the ,,Justice in Policing Act of 2020. This has passed the House in June 2020, but will have a difficult time passing through the Republican-controlled Senate. If you need some help in how to most effectively engage with your elected reps, check out our ,step-by-step guide
• Encourage your Republic and Democratic representatives to ,,work together to build a bi-partisan bill, as the parties are currently in a stalemate over each party's police reform bill
• Support the petition for the ,,Police Accountability Act of 2020 (1M+ signatures so far)
• Connect with your ,,local and city officials to spark discussion on efforts they are making to standardize use of force policies in your hometown police department
• Engage on social channels and in ,The Forum; add ideas, comments, and facts, to help us find lasting solutions

,#UseOfForceGuidelines

Purge the records of individuals who were convicted of misdemeanor crimes involving possession of marijuana, and release those who are currently in jail for these petty offenses. Tens of thousands of people have difficulty obtaining employment because of public record of infractions that are widely considered trivial, or would lawful in the majority of US states today.

Why does this matter?

• As reported by The New York Times, the share of American men with criminal records — particularly black men — grew rapidly in recent decades as the government pursued aggressive law enforcement strategies, especially against drug crimes (source). In the aftermath of the recession, those men are having particular trouble finding work
• Men with criminal records account for about 34% of all nonworking men ages 25 to 54, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll (,source)
• A 2020 ACLU report found that even in the era of marijuana reform, black people are more than 3½ times more likely to be arrested for marijuana offenses than whites. This, despite ample data showing both races use the drug at similar rates (,source)
• Surveys also show roughly nine in 10 United States employers check databases of criminal records when hiring for at least some positions. While some focus solely on felony convictions; many others also consider misdemeanors or arrests
• The efforts by states to legalize or decriminalize marijuana are part of a national trend toward making it easier for people to seal or expunge a range of convictions. Americans with a criminal record — whether it’s marked with felonies, misdemeanors or both — can find it harder to get a job and find housing
• California, Colorado, Maryland, New Hampshire and Oregon also have made it easier for people convicted of some crimes of marijuana possession, cultivation or manufacture to get their records sealed or expunged, which generally means removing convictions from public databases. Massachusetts lawmakers are considering a criminal justice bill that would, among other changes, allow people to expunge any conviction that’s no longer a crime, such as marijuana possession (,source)

What can we do to tackle it?

• Likely the most impact on this topic will come at a local and state level. There are more than 2,000 prosecutor and sheriff elections this fall, offices that have a big impact on criminal justice across the country (,source)
• Our ,step-by-step playbook will help uncover bills being considered, and how to reach out
• Consider signing a petition for ,,the Marijuana Justice Act (315,000 signatures so far)
• Engage on social channels and in ,The Forum; add ideas, comments, and facts, to help us uncover real solutions to this issue

#ErasePettyDrugRecords