Homeownership

New Cal Law Addresses Anti-Black Bias in Home Appraisal Process

“Black homeowners in predominantly White neighborhoods are getting their homes appraised for far less than their neighbors,” Holden said. “It’s just another example of how bias, whether explicit or implicit, creates inequity for Black Americans. This is redlining 2.0.”

Published

4 years ago

October 19, 2021

Isabelle Price

Before she puts the home on the market, the mid adult realtor evaluates the property.

Paul Austin and his wife Tenisha Tate, a Bay Area Black couple, were confident that the sale of their Marin City home would net them a sizeable profit. They had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into renovations before putting it on the market.

But that process turned sour when the couple discovered alarming race-based discrimination baked into the system of home appraisals.

Austin shared that harrowing experience with the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals during its fourth meeting on Oct. 13.

California’s Assembly Bill (AB) 3121, signed into law in 2020, created the nine-member task force to investigate the history and costs of slavery in California and around the United States. The group is charged with studying and developing reparation proposals for African Americans and recommending appropriate ways to educate Californians about the task force’s findings.

Austin’s testimony added to the growing body of evidence that the wealth gap that exists between Black and White families in the United States was created — and has been maintained throughout history – by deep-rooted racial biases and intentional government policy at the federal, state and local levels.

“We had an appraiser come out in 2019 to appraise our home,” Austin said, talking about selling of his home, which is located five miles north of San Francisco. “She was an older White woman, and she appraised our house for just under a $1 million after we had already put in an additional $400,00 into our property. We did our homework because we should have appraised for $1.4 million. We had to fight against it.”

Austin and his wife added an additional 1,300 square feet to the home’s original 1,300 square footage, he told the Task Force

A qualified appraiser is responsible for creating a report based on a visual inspection. The property’s lot size, square footage, amenities, and number of bedrooms and bathrooms are expected to provide the basis for an unbiased valuation.

When Austin and Tate found a second appraiser, they decided to ask a White female friend to pose as the seller. This time around, they actually netted a surprisingly higher offer of $500,000 more.

When Austin and Tate’s story went viral and made headlines in news reports around the world, other Black families emerged to share disturbing stories of how they, too, were given deceptively low estimations of their homes’ values.

“We’re right at the beginning. The story is now being told,” Austin told the task force. “But within our community, we have not had the opportunity to galvanize people to start looking at their loans and appraisals and comparing them with others, and I mean White folks, to see what’s going on in this industry.”

On Sept. 28, Gov. Newsom signed Assemblymember Chris Holden’s (D-Pasadena) legislation Assembly Bill (AB) 948, which would address discrimination in the real estate appraisal process, such as the prejudicial treatment of Austin and his wife received.

AB 948 would require the Bureau of California Real Estate Appraisals to gather demographic information on buyers and sellers of real estate property and compile data of homeowners from protected classes who file complaints based on low appraisals. The legislation also requires appraisers to take anti-bias training when renewing their licenses.

“This bill reflects a starting point in a much-needed conversation about how discrimination is still prevalent in the home buying and selling process, and I am committed to addressing this inequity,” Holden said.

Less than one in five Black California households could afford to purchase a home valued at the statewide median-price of $659,380 in 2020, as compared to two in five White California households that could buy a home at the same price, according to the California Association Realtors (CAR).

CAR also stated in a February report that the affordability gap is “stark in expensive counties like San Francisco,” where a median-priced home of $1,650,000 was only affordable for 8% of Black households, 15% of Latinx households, and 22%of Asian households, compared to 35% of White households.

The 2019 homeownership rate in California was 63.2% for Whites, 60.2% for Asians, 44.1% for Latinx and 36.8% for Blacks, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

Austin said that his family was part of the “second wave Great Migration” of Black people from the Deep South that settled in California around the 1940s. Many of them worked in the Sausalito shipyard in Marin County.

Many of the Black families that came to California during that period lived in government housing in Marin City while working in the naval shipyards in and around San Francisco. When World War II ended, Austin’s grandparents had enough money to purchase a home anywhere in Marin County.

“Due to redlining, they did not have that opportunity. Blacks weren’t able to buy land outside of Marin City,” he said. “If you look at Marin County, currently it’s arguably the richest county in California. The data also shows, when race counts, that Marin County, as a whole, has the largest disparities anywhere. It’s such a huge gap.”

Austin, who attended the Historical Black College and University, Texas Southern University in Houston, said that he doesn’t want to see his children or other Black Californians deal with the same types of issues.

“Just think that if we didn’t have the will to fight the appraisal company,” Austin said. “It’s the systems that have been created by White people for White people that continuously, negatively affect people that look like me. Now it’s time to take those steps and right the wrongs.”

Isabelle Price

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Activism

We Fought on Opposite Sides of the Sheng Thao Recall. Here’s Why We’re Uniting Behind Barbara Lee for Oakland Mayor

Today, we are coming together to do all we can to make sure Barbara Lee is elected Mayor in the April 15 Oakland special election. Here’s why. Now more than ever, Oakland needs a respected, hands-on leader who will unite residents behind a clear vision for change. The next mayor will have to hit the ground running with leaders and stakeholders across our political divide to get to work solving the problems standing in the way of Oakland’s progress. Job No. 1: improving public safety. Everyone agrees that all Oaklanders deserve to feel safe in their neighborhoods. But sadly, too many of us do not.

Published

2 months ago

March 24, 2025

Oakland Post

Robert Harris (left) is a retired attorney at PG&E and former legal counsel for NAACP. Richard Fuentes is co-owner of FLUID510 and chair of the Political Action Committee, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 57. Courtesy photos.

By Robert Harris and Richard Fuentes
Special to The Post

The City of Oakland is facing a number of urgent challenges, from housing and public safety to a pressing need for jobs and economic development. One of us, Robert Harris, supported the November recall vote that removed Mayor Sheng Thao from office. Meanwhile, Richard Fuentes believed the recall was the wrong strategy to tackle Oakland’s challenges.

Today, we are coming together to do all we can to make sure Barbara Lee is elected Mayor in the April 15 Oakland special election. Here’s why.

Now more than ever, Oakland needs a respected, hands-on leader who will unite residents behind a clear vision for change.

The next mayor will have to hit the ground running with leaders and stakeholders across our political divide to get to work solving the problems standing in the way of Oakland’s progress.

Job No. 1: improving public safety. Everyone agrees that all Oaklanders deserve to feel safe in their neighborhoods. But sadly, too many of us do not.

During her three decades in the state Legislature and Congress, Lee made public safety a priority, securing funding for police and firefighters in Oakland, delivering $15.8 million in community safety funding, and more. Today, she has a plan for making Oakland safer. It starts with making sure police are resourced, ready, and on patrol to stop the most dangerous criminals on our streets.

Oakland residents and business owners are feeling the impact of too many assaults, smash/grabs, retail thefts, and home robberies. Lee will increase the number of police on the streets, make sure they are focused on the biggest threats, and invest in violence prevention and proven alternatives that prevent crime and violence in the first place.

In addition, on day one, Barbara Lee will focus on Oakland’s business community, creating an advisory cabinet of business owners and pushing to ensure Oakland can attract and keep businesses of all sizes.

The other top issue facing Oakland is housing and homelessness. As of May 2024, over 5,500 people were unhoused in the city. Oaklanders are just 25% of the population of Alameda County, but the city has 57% of the unhoused population.

Unhoused people include seniors, veterans, single women, women with children, people who suffer physical and mental illness, unemployed and undereducated people, and individuals addicted to drugs. Some are students under 18 living on the streets without their parents or a guardian. Research shows that 53% of Oakland’s homeless population is Black.

Starting on her first day in office, Lee will use her national profile and experience to bring new resources to the city to reduce homelessness and expand affordable housing. And she will forge new public/private partnerships and collaboration between the City, Alameda County, other public agencies, and local nonprofits to ensure that Oakland gets its fair share of resources for everything from supportive services to affordable housing.

Besides a public safety and housing crisis, Oakland has a reputational crisis at hand. Too many people locally and nationally believe Oakland does not have the ability to tackle its problems.

Lee has the national reputation and the relationships she can use to assert a new narrative about our beloved Oakland – a vibrant, diverse, and culturally rich city with a deep history of activism and innovation.

Everyone remembers how Lee stood up for Oakland values as the only member of Congress not to authorize the disastrous Iraq War in 2001. She has led the fight in Congress for ethics reform and changes to the nation’s pay-to-play campaign finance laws.

Lee stands alone among the candidates for mayor as a longtime champion of honest, transparent, and accountable government—and she has the reputation and the skills to lead an Oakland transformation that puts people first.

The past few years have been a trying period for our hometown.

Robert Harris supported the recall because of Thao’s decision to fire LeRonne Armstrong; her refusal to meet with certain organizations, such as the Oakland Branch of the NAACP; and the city missing the deadline for filing for a state grant to deal with serious retail thefts in Oakland.

Richard Fuentes opposed the recall, believing that Oakland was making progress in reducing crime. The voters have had their say; now, it is time for us to move forward together and turn the page to a new era.

The two of us don’t agree on everything, but we agree on this: the next few years will be safer, stronger, and more prosperous if Oaklanders elect Barbara Lee as our next mayor on April 15.

Robert Harris is a retired attorney at PG&E and former legal counsel for NAACP.

Richard Fuentes is co-owner of FLUID510 and chair of the Political Action Committee, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 57.

Oakland Post

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Activism

After Losing All, Black Fire Victims File a Lawsuit; Seek a Way Forward

Zo Williams, an author, radio host and of Altadena told California Black Media (CBM), “My childhood is gone. The city will forever be changed by this horrific event.” Like Williams, many of Altadena’s Black residents are confronting the devastating loss they’ve just experienced and exploring what steps they need to take to move forward.

Published

4 months ago

January 28, 2025

Oakland Post

NAACP logo. The NAACP and Singleton Schreiber have filed a lawsuit against the power company Southern California Edison. The complaint accuses the power utility of starting the fire due to the company’s failure to take “adequate precautions” and improper maintenance and management of electrical equipment it owns.

By Reginald S. Webb, Jr., California Black Media

On Jan. 7, when the Eaton fire ignited in the foothills of Eaton Canyon in the San Gabriel Mountains. Fueled by wind gusts of 80 to 100 miles per hour and dry weather conditions, the fire forced the evacuation of most of Altadena’s 43,000 residents.

Among them were thousands of Black families and individuals who have lived in the racially diverse hillside suburb for generations. Blacks make up about 18% of Altadena’s population and their homeownership rate of more than 80% far outpaces other places in the state and country.

A few days later, many of the Altadena evacuees returned to smoldering or completely burned down remains of their homes destroyed in raging fires that have killed 17 people, charred over 14,000 acres, and damaged 9,300 homes, businesses, places of worship and more.

Zo Williams, an author, radio host and former resident of Altadena told California Black Media (CBM), “My childhood is gone. The city will forever be changed by this horrific event.”

Like Williams, many of Altadena’s Black residents are confronting the devastating loss they’ve just experienced and exploring what steps they need to take to move forward.

On Jan. 14, the California-Hawaii State Conference of the NAACP held a virtual town hall to advise fire victims on their legal options. The event was organized in partnership with the law firm Singleton Schreiber.

The NAACP and Singleton Schreiber have filed a lawsuit against the power company Southern California Edison. The complaint accuses the power utility of starting the fire due to the company’s failure to take “adequate precautions” and improper maintenance and management of electrical equipment it owns.

Gerald Singleton, Managing Partner of the law firm, told CBM, “After a disaster occurs sometimes, people don’t know where to go for resources. The NAACP is on the ground guiding people in the right direction.

The NAACP and Singleton Schreiber, the nation’s leading and largest fire litigation practice, have scheduled a second town hall for fire victims on Jan. 21.

On Jan. 17, a town hall was held at a Pasadena Church in Pasadena. Political and civic leaders, businessowners, grieving residents and more came together to share information, reflect on the past, talk about the way forward and assess the damage from the blaze that CalFire has described as the second most destructive wildfire in California’s history. The deadliest and most destructive fire in California history was the Camp Fire, which broke out in Butte County in 2018, claimed 85 lives and caused damage totaling $16.65 billion.

The Eaton fire destroyed important pieces of Southern California’s Black history. The city of Altadena was one of the first places in Southern California where Black families were allowed to buy homes in the Los Angeles area.

Pastor Kerwin Manning of Pasadena Church says he didn’t sustain damage to his church or his house but, he and his wife have not been able to return home since they evacuated on Jan. 7. Other members of his congregation were not so fortunate. Seventeen of them lost their homes.

Manning says he’s unofficially calling the recovery process, “Operation Beauty Will Rise.”

He quotes Isiah 61:3, “To provide for those who grieve in Zion — to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes.”

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Business

New Property Insurance Bill Aims to Help L.A. Fire Victims; Stabilize Market

According to the Office of California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), the legislation would authorize the FAIR Plan “to request the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (I-Bank) to issue bonds if the FAIR Plan faces liquidity challenges in the event of a major catastrophe such as a wildfire.”

Published

4 months ago

January 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

Last week, Assemblymember Lisa Calderon (D-Whittier) and Assemblymember David Alvarez (D-San Diego) introduced Assembly Bill (AB) 226, legislation the authors say will strengthen the state’s property insurance market and “protect homeowners, families and consumers.”

AB 226 also proposes increasing the claims-paying capacity of the FAIR Plan, The California Fair Access to Insurance Requirement (FAIR) plan, a private insurance pool for residents and businesses who can’t find insurance otherwise through the general market.

The California Building Industry Association issued a statement on Jan. 10, praising the plan and urging the Legislature and Governor to sign it into law without delays.

“AB 226 will help bolster the solvency of the California FAIR Plan and California’s property insurance market. The tragedy unfolding in Los Angeles underscores how urgently this measure is needed to address the insurance and related housing crisis,” the CBIA statement reads.

“This legislative proposal was originally introduced in the Legislature last year in the form of AB 2996. That bill did not receive a single ‘NO’ vote as it moved through the legislative process, but unfortunately died on the final night of session,” it continues.

Rivas said the bill is one way to help L.A. fire victims.

“Our Assembly is taking action today,” Rivas said. “The Assembly plans to advance legislation to support recovery efforts, including a bill focused on insurance claims for homeowners.”