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Session Notes

Reparations Session

Prompt 1

Reactions

  • Shock
  • Generational Wealth (Assets Inheritance)
  • Debt
    • Education
  • Reasoning/Rationale behind homeowner mortgage Disclosure Act

 Questions

  • Median Net Assets
  • Includes homelessness?
  • Who is included?
  • Who isn’t included in this data?
  • Are there promising models out there? “(Good Examples)
  • Conditions – Understanding – Context + what has made this possible?

Prompt #2

  • First-time homeowner of color program/process/resources for people
  • Can we leverage technology to make complex processes easier? Access
  • Ask/Require Developers to $$ to community/housing reparations
  • Community Coalitions/ Highland Park

 

Data & The Case For Reparations

  • Reactions?
    • Not totally surprised by the data – Seen the study Before
  • Questions?
    • The wealth gap has been known… but why no action?
    • Can resolve this out of court?
  • What other data?
  • Data over time to understand how generational wealth transmitted
  • Individual parcel data

Imagining The Possibilities

  • Change affordable housing subsidy restrictions
  • Grants for down payments, subsidies for loans etc.

Sheet 2

 

Thinking Systemically — Individuals (Embodies racism)

  • Institutions

 

Starts With Senses – think beyond technicalities

  • Personal change is systems change ( embody thought work)

 

Understand where people are thinking first – What are the personal to collective mental models?

  • Values, beliefs, assumptions

 

What are the interdependencies and how do we change them?

 

How to measure racism (if its a structure)

 

 

  • What do partners/community want to know?

 

  • How do they define data?
  • What are you interested in/ have the capacity for?
  • Ask upfront?
  • Be upfront about why data is important
  • Transparency

 

  • Build relationships
  • Involved early in the process
  • Engage in identifying problems wanting to address – make sure everyone is on board
  • Find the stakeholders
  • What does the community think are the solutions?

 

  • Challenge of partnerships (i.e. law enforcement & victim services)
  • How to collect info from vulnerable/marginalized groups?
  • Outreach to community partners 
  • Doing homework – What has been done already? This builds trust.

 

Reducing Disparities in Vaccine Access 

  • Language Accessibility
  • Trusted Messengers
  • Food/ music/ PPE/ gifts
  • Incentives
  • Community Spaces
  • Media in multiple languages
  • Wrap-around services
  • Vax personal rep. Community
  • ID not required (e.g. Drivers License)
  • Insurance status not required – sign up
  • Testing availability

 

Priorities (In-Person Group)

  • Improved compensation for child care and early education workers
  • Demand for high quality, free, or affordable programs exceeds supply
  • Lack of parent involvement in decision-making and community engagement
  • Challenge of making and measuring long-term student, family, and community outcomes

 

Priorities (Online Group)

  • Data collection – How can community members be engaged and leading in all stages of defining data problems, metrics, collection, and data sharing
  • Government collaboration and engagement with community and parent leadership

Housing Session Notes

Priorities from 4/12/22

  • There are insufficient resources (financial, social, programmatic) to meet the tremendous need for the production and preservation of affordable housing and complementary supports, especially for the most vulnerable populations.
  • Local control in zoning and permitting and discriminatory real estate practices create barriers to changing the status-quo, prevents diverse housing types, continues segregated communities.
  • Creating sustainable and equitable ownership opportunities for communities of color.

Questions from 5/6/22

Middle Column:

  • What do individuals experiencing housing instability believe would be the most impactful programs, tools, or resources to address housing instability in Boston?
  • How do we use existing community assets to increase social and programmatic supports in affordable housing?
  • If urban communities had a trust fund to assist everyone in housing (so they pay 25% of their income or less on rent/mortgage) how much would they need?

Top Left:

How can universities mitigate their impact on affordable housing scarcity / support sustainable housing efforts / housing access?

Bottom Left:

  • What are the zoning regulations for multi-family housing in each Boston suburb? How can these be changed or overcome?
  • Do zoning law changes to allow ADUs and multi-family residences on property formerly zoned for single-family housing impact ownership rates among BIPOC residents in Boston suburbs?

Right Column:

  • What are the most prevalent specific discriminatory practices in real estate that local zoning and permitting committees use to exclude affordable, quality housing in communities of color? 
  • Looking at the ???? between real estate professionals (realtors, lenders, ????) and buyers of color in Boston, what discriminatory real-estate practices persist to this day?

Bottom:

How can we pursue economic justice and equity while promoting racial equity in the homeownership market? Can you have a racially diverse owner class without addressing inequality?