Title: Redlining in Seattle — Real Estate Gals
Headings: Redlining in Seattle
Redlining in Seattle
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Redlining in Seattle
Posted by Johnine Larsen on February 7, 2018
| General Interest
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Much of the city we live in today was shaped by racist housing policies in early 20 th century. In a practice called redlining, lenders would literally draw a red line around a neighborhood on a map and then refuse to give home loans in that area on the grounds that such loans were too risky. The reason for that “risk”? Race. High densities of African-American and other minority groups appeared on these maps as red, “hazardous” places. If you were a person of color and wanted to buy a house, no one would give you a loan. The Federal Housing Administration explicitly refused to back loans to black people or other people who lived near black people. The Great Depression-era map from the Home Owner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) shows redlining in action. Redlining both prevented minorities from owning homes and confined them to renting in red neighborhoods. In Seattle, red areas included Downtown, Central District, Pioneer Square, Georgetown, and Highland Park.