Title: How Redlining Continues To Shape Racial Segregation In Milwaukee | WisContext
Headings: How Redlining Continues To Shape Racial Segregation In Milwaukee
How Redlining Continues To Shape Racial Segregation In Milwaukee
1930s Lending Map Reveals The Policy Roots Of Housing Discrimination
Graphics:
A New Deal-era housing policy
Redlining made segregation a reality

Content: However, over a half-century later, racial segregation by neighborhoods remains very pronounced. Looking at the historical practice and legal structure of redlining can shed light on how residential segregation in Milwaukee was birthed and maintained, and how it informs current patterns of racial segregation.</p>  <h4>A New Deal-era housing policy</h4>  <p>In an effort to promote economic recovery during the Great Depression, the U.S. government implemented several policies throughout the 1930s. One major policy was the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Housing_Act_of_1934" target="_blank">National Housing Act of 1934</a> which created the <a href="https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/housing/fhahistory" target="_blank">Federal Housing Administration</a>. One primary goal of these efforts was to slow down the rate of housing foreclosures, which were rampant as Americans struggled to find and keep jobs during the economic depths of the Depression.</p>  <p>During this time, the FHA worked with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Owners%27_Loan_Corporation" target="_blank">Home Owners' Loan Corporation</a>, a government-sponsored lending agency known as HOLC that issued bonds to refinance mortgages for homeowners struggling to keep up. HOLC also created "residential security" maps that identified specific neighborhoods as high or low risk for investment. These maps were used by bank and finance entities in making lending and other investment decisions.</p>  <p>Based on instructions from the HOLC, the assessors who created these maps systematically outlined residences and rated neighborhoods based on of the aesthetics and age of houses, their proximity to recreational facilities and environmental hazards and the characteristics of the people who lived in each neighborhood.</p>  <p>Consistent with the overt racism and other bigotries of the era, many of the appraisal questions were implicitly or explicitly concerned with the demographics of the residents. The races, national origins, ethnicities and religions of the people occupying neighborhoods were part of HOLC's assessments of an area's worthiness for investment. The resulting grading system categorized neighborhoods on maps, reflecting the prejudices of the evaluators and the ingrained biases of the system as a whole.</p>   <p>HOLC developed four distinct categories when mapping neighborhoods. These categories were meant to serve as a basis for a financial institution to determine the perceived desirability and risks of investing in a neighborhood. The categories were color-coded green, blue, yellow and red, in increasing order or risk and corresponding decreasing order of desirability.</p>  <p>The "best" areas were given a grade of A and coded green, and were deemed to be exemplary neighborhoods for lenders.