February Developments

Yachad Receives Major Grant from The National Fair Housing Alliance to Support Inclusive and Equitable Access to Affordable Housing. 

We are honored to share the news that Yachad has been awarded a $185,000 grant from the National Fair Housing Alliance’s (NFHA) Inclusive Communities Fund Grant program to help people access equitable housing opportunities and promote stable, healthy, viable communities. These funds were made available as part of last year’s historic settlement with Fannie Mae that provided $35 million nation-wide to promote homeownership, neighborhood stabilization, access to credit, property rehabilitation, and residential development.

“Too many neighborhoods have been destabilized by systemic housing discrimination. We are ready to invest in these areas to rebuild communities of color,” said Lisa Rice, President and CEO of NFHA. “By partnering with Yachad, we will revitalize block after block, the neighborhoods most impacted by the 2008 mortgage crisis, and build more inclusive and equitable communities. We look forward to working with our partners to ensure everyone has access to safe, sustainable, and fair housing choices and well-resourced neighborhoods.”

Yachad is thrilled to continue our work in partnership with the National Fair Housing Alliance. These funds will be used to repair unsafe conditions in homes to improve the health and build new home equity for lower income homeowners in the District of Columbia.

A New Study Reveals Home Appraisal Bias

Impacting Black and Brown Homeowners

Building new equity for Yachad homeowners is an important part of our home remediation work. Home equity is key to building wealth for homeowners. The National Fair Housing Alliance details in a new study how this benefit of home ownership is denied to many Black and Brown homeowners by appraisal bias. “Our report details a comprehensive analysis of structural challenges in Appraisal Standards and Appraiser Criteria that impacts every homeowner in the U.S.,” said Lisa Rice, President and CEO of NFHA. “It also highlights the deep inequities and systemic issues of bias in the appraisal industry that restricts home ownership and important lending opportunities for people of color.

• Homes in White neighborhoods are appraised at double the value of comparable homes in communities of color. Comparing similar homes, located in neighborhoods with the same socioeconomic status and comparable amenities, homes in predominantly White neighborhoods are appraised as worth $371,000 more than their counterparts in communities of color. This means the average White family can use their home to leverage over $370,000 more in capital than their counterparts living in a community of color.
• Racial inequality in appraised values has increased 75 percent over the last decade. In 2013, homes in predominantly White neighborhoods were appraised at $213,000 more than comparable homes in similar communities of color. By 2021, this gap had increased to $370,000, a 75 percent increase.

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