Everyone knows
the damage the coronavirus can do to your body.
It can destroy your lungs.
It can injure your kidneys.
Hell, it can even take down your presidency.
But it turns out the pandemic isn't just harming our bodies--
it's also harming our homes.
NEWSMAN: Are we headed for another mortgage crisis?
The slow-motion disaster in America's neighborhoods.
With more than 21 million Americans out of work,
more and more homeowners
are struggling to pay their mortgage.
We've seen a big spike in the number
of delinquent, uh, homeowners since the pandemic began.
NEWSWOMAN: Right now, 6.6% of all mortgages
are in some stage of delinquency.
That's 3.3 million American homes,
nearly doubling in just nine months.
If we don't put money in people's pockets,
if we don't extend a moratorium on evictions
and-and mortgage foreclosures,
we're gonna be seeing millions of people
who are homeless in the middle of the winter,
when disease is rampant.
We're gonna be seeing people who are being forced
to go to work even if they're sick
because they need to put food on the table and pay rent.
And-and that is unconscionable.
Wow, guys.
3.3 million American homes
is an insane number.
That's like if everybody in Jamaica was suddenly homeless.
I mean, they'd probably be chill about it
because they have so much great weed and great weather.
But, still, it would be very inconvenient.
It's truly amazing that the American government,
the most powerful nation in the world,
has failed its people so badly.
I mean, it almost feels like they tried
to one-up the damage corona was doing.
"I'm going to cause a massive public health crisis."
"Well, then we're gonna cause
a massive economic and housing crisis."
"Damn, you guys are cold."
But while the pandemic is causing millions
to face a mortgage crisis for the first time,
housing instability is nothing new for Black people.
In fact, it's something African Americans
have been dealing with long before the coronavirus.
So let's find out why in another installment
of If You Don't Know, Now You Know.
? ?
It's no secret that white people have had an easier time
getting ahead in America.
But one of the most important reasons for this
might surprise you.
For millions, owning a home
remains at the heart of the American dream.
But many Black Americans have been left out.
NEWSMAN: A new report says just 44% of Black families
own a home, compared to 74% for whites.
Owning a home's the way that most people develop wealth.
Uh, it is the-- a-a way that, uh,
for years and years and years,
people have been able to pass something on
to their-- to their children or pay for their education.
NEWSMAN 2: It's part of the reason the average white family
has about ten times the median wealth of a Black family.
The gap between white and Black homeowners
is greater now than it was
since before the Fair Housing Act of 1968,
when segregation was legal.
That's right. The homeownership gap
is worse for Black people now
than it was in segregation.
Which is insane!
I never thought a Black guy could be able to say,
"Ah, Jim Crow. Those were the good old days."
But it makes sense when you realize
how owning real estate helps you build wealth,
and that wealth becomes generational.
Because home ownership is one of the surest ways
for families to pass down wealth.
Not Beanie Babies, Grandma.
But they're still very cute. Save them for me.
But, also, like, think about a portfolio.
So, Black Americans have had less wealth
than white Americans for decades,
and a large part of that was because
they couldn't build wealth by owning a home.
But why? Why couldn't they own homes
at the same rates as white Americans?
Well, like most things dealing with racial inequality,
it starts with the government.
NEWSMAN: During the New Deal,
the Home Owners' Loan Corporation refinanced
more than a million loans,
nearly one out of every five mortgages in urban America.
Now, the main problem with the Home Owners' Loan Corporation
was redlining.
All of that wonderful government finance
was only available to white people.
NEWSMAN 2: The Home Owners' Loan Corporation
essentially deemed Black people too risky to loan.
NEWSMAN 3: The HOLC created residential security maps,
where the term "redlining" comes from.
Green meant best area, best people, AKA businessmen.
Blue meant good people, like white-collar families.
Yellow meant a declining area with working-class families.
And red meant detrimental influences,
most significantly Negroes.
AARON GLANTZ: Saying that neighborhoods were hazardous
to lend in because they were "infiltrated by Negroes"
or "threatened with Negro encroachment."
Man, what a terrible era,
when the phrase "infiltrated by Negroes"
could be a term used by the federal government,
when it should only be used for a dope-ass Migos album.
I mean, seriously, do you know how (bleep)ed up it is
to describe those neighborhoods as infiltrated by Negroes?
That's where Black people lived.
But they made it sound like Black people were breaking
and entering into their own houses.
"Oh, shit, I'm in. Oh, it's my house! What am I doing?
I live here."
Although, I won't lie, a part of me actually misses
how up-front racism was back in the days.
You didn't have to read between the lines, you know?
Because if you're Black now and you're trying to get a loan,
they'll be like, "Well, we-we take
"a variety of factors into account
in the loan approval process."
Back then, if a Black person walked into a bank,
the manager was just like, "Look alive, fellas!
"We got a Negro encroaching. White women in the vault!
Come on, y'all!"
Now, by the late 1960s,
courts ruled that redlining was illegal.
But there are more subtle ways
that Black people are still kept from purchasing houses.
For example, real estate agents
who are just really trying to keep neighborhoods just white.
Newsday with an undercover project
to see whether real estate agents
treated prospective tenants who are Black
any differently than prospective tenants who are white.
And they did. A lot.
The risks to African Americans in particular
of suffering potential discrimination
was about fifty-fifty.
I've had, uh, agents invoke...
burning crosses to dissuade me
from buying a home in certain areas.
NEWSWOMAN: This Newsday footage shows an agent
handling one tester who is Black
and wants to see a house
without a prequalification letter.
But for the white buyer also with no letter...
she shows that buyer two.
In other cases, Newsday records agents
who appear to be steering minorities
towards mixed communities.
But with a white buyer, the same agent texting him
about recent gang killings there.
Whew.
Those real estate agents got caught.
I would love to hear their feeble excuses afterwards.
"No, no, no, when I told one buyer
"the neighbors were nice people
"and the other ones were gang killers,
I meant they were nice gang killers. Just jobs!"
And, by the way, invoking burning crosses
to try and stop a Black person from moving into a neighborhood
is not only racist-- it's overkill.
If you want to stop a Black person from moving into a home,
all you got to do is tell them that their next-door neighbor
adds raisins to their potato salad. They're out.
And the truth is that, even though redlining was outlawed
as a matter of official policy,
it sure looks like the banks are still doing it anyway.
NEWSWOMAN: Lenders deny mortgages for Black applications
at a rate 80% higher than that of white applicants.
MAN: When we do get loans,
they're at much higher interest rates,
much worse conditions.
If you're African American,
making more than $100,000,
you are more likely to be put into a subprime loan
than if you were a white person making less than $35,000.
NEWSWOMAN: Consequently, Black and brown families
were disproportionately impacted by the 2007-2010 housing crisis,
being nearly twice as likely as white families
to lose their homes.
After controlling for education,
crime, walkability,
homes in Black neighborhoods are devalued by 23%.
And, cumulatively, that's about $156 billion in lost equity.
NEWSWOMAN 2: One couple in Florida actually saw
their appraisal increase by 40%
after they removed any evidence that a Black woman lived there.
I took down, um, the family pictures
that we had in the home
and, you know, basically any markers
that there were African Americans living in the house.
NEWSWOMAN 3: Replacing them only with photos of her husband
and his white family.
When the second appraisal comes back,
the value of their house shot up more than $100,000.
Think about that.
Her home appraisal went up $100,000.
$100,000.
Getting rid of her family photos did more for her home value
than putting in a swimming pool.
And again, can we all agree that this is racist? Yeah?
Because just having pictures of Black family members
shouldn't drive down the value of a house.
Just because you have pictures of Black people?
I mean, unless that Black person is R. Kelly.
And then it's, like, I don't care
that the basement is spacious.
I know what was happening in there.
So when it comes to racial discrimination in housing,
America has come a long way.
And there's still a long way to go.
But until the government gets serious
about racial discrimination in mortgage lending
and home selling, well, Leo Deblin has got you covered.
Are you trying to sell your home,
but can't get a good price because you Black?
You're trying to get a new house,
but these real estate agents are keeping you in the poor house.
(buzzer sounds)
-Well, pack that moving van... -(scratching sound)
-...'cause Leo's got a plan. -(tires squealing)
Introducing Leo Deblin's Home Whitification.
I'll make your house look so white,
they'll think Wes Anderson live in this bitch.
CROWD: Hooray!
I'll throw out all your family photos
and replace them with watercolors of boats.
(boat horn blares)
I'll even throw in a diploma from Dartmouth.
Art history? Ooh!
-You know that's white. -(slide whistle blows)
Your library's gonna get whitified, too,
with David Sedaris, The Life of Pi, and of course,
How To Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi.
Oh. That's white hot.
(ding)
And nothing says white like adding exposed brick.
(thudding)
Man, that's rustic as hell.
(slide whistle blows)
I'll even whitify your garage.
Swap out that 2005 Honda Civic for a kayak, a pair of skis,
and a volleyball net that only got used once.
Whew! Looking like an L.L. Bean catalogue in this bitch.
And if you order now, I'll whitify your music collection.
-Goodbye, Megan Thee Stallion. -(buzzer sounds)
-Hello, Barbara The Streisand. -(slide whistle blows)
Leo Deblin Home Whitification.
It ain't but $85.
You can get that from your mama.
? Leo Deblin Whitification ?
-? And Institute of Barbering ? -(mewing)
(yowling)
? Leo Deblin Whitification ?
? And Institute of Barbering. ?
DEBLIN: Exit 120 by the fairgrounds,
next to Foot Locker.