Congratulations! You Gentrify: Displacing a Community

Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2017 · 184 posts · 204 votes

This question is one I pose to anyone who has an opinion on the topic.

Obviously we're all here because we like something about the idea of REI and passive income. As the process goes, we find a "good deal" in some area, maybe make an improvement or 2 to the "deal", and if all goes well, we sit back watch the fruits of our labor grow through rental income, increased property value or equity. Now, multiply this by 100... 100 of us have found 100 deals, made 100 improvements, and raised 100 property values.

Boom. We just gentrified an area. A community that used to live there can no longer afford to be where they've grown up because there were a lot of good "deals" for investors to take advantage of and help our families and bolster our investment portfolio.

Granted, we may not have intentionally displaced a community, but collectively, we do. We just saw an opportunity and took advantage.

The question(s) I pose:

Do you think gentrification is an issue?
Do any of you ever struggle with the reality that we collectively price people out of their communities?
Do you ever think of it that way?
Do you ever feel bad about contributing to the gentrification of communities?
What are the alternatives?

This is just a philosophy question and some things that I think of, not pointing fingers or trying to be accusatory, or maybe I am. Just wanting to get a conversation started!

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James Free

Rental Property Investor · Fort Collins, CO · Member since 2015 · 128 posts · 327 votes

"Gentrification" is not wrong.

A neighborhood is either desirable or expensive or undesirable and inexpensive. It can move in either direction for a variety of reasons.

Maybe a community loses its industry and there are no more jobs, so prices go down, but it's still a bad place to live because there are no jobs and no future. Maybe hot new industries come to town and the opposite happens.

Maybe crime goes up, and people who can afford to leave move away. Maybe crime goes down, and people who used to avoid the neighborhood start moving in.

The list goes on and on.

Suppose we have a low-cost area that is in reasonable commuting distance from high-paying jobs. Why is it low-cost if it's so well-located? The obvious answers include crime and dilapidation. There are two ways things can go from here: The conditions improve and the prices go up, or the conditions stay lousy and the prices stay low. The "anti-gentrification" crowd tells you that price increases are immoral, but are they really ok with crime-ridden slums? Of course not. They promote magical thinking - the idea that we can get rid of crime and fix up the buildings without increasing the prices, even though the only reason that the prices were low was the conditions!

All of this without even mentioning that everyone who OWNs in a "gentrifying" neighborhood wins the appreciation lottery.

Shorter commutes are more green. It's better for society as a whole if the people working the high-paying jobs live near them. People doing little to no work don't have any particular reason to prefer one area to another, nor should we pander to them. The idea that you are more entitled to live in a particular area if you "started out there" has terrible implications and quickly becomes oppressive.

Finally, of course, the elephant in the room is identity politics. Most ant-gentrification rhetoric usually stems from toxic identity politics. People who get very angry when Identity Group A is displaced by Identity Group B don't care one whit when the opposite happens somewhere else. At best, such people are consistent in supporting the displacement of "richer" people by "poorer" people, or at least those they imagine to be so, while opposing the displacement of "poorer" by "richer." But adding emotional rhetoric doesn't change the facts above.

There is no good reason to keep crime in place, to keep dilapidation un-remedied, or to maintain filthy hovels when better alternatives are available.

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Jonathan AndersonPro Member
Real Estate Agent · Greenville, SC · Member since 2016 · 198 posts · 105 votes
7y
Originally posted by @Nicole Heasley Beitenman:

Originally posted by @Cody L.:
Originally posted by @Jonathan Anderson:

Originally posted by @Maugno M.:
@Jonathan Anderson
I'm straight up mexican or chicano whatever you want to call it but i find it crazy to call yourselves privileged just because you're white. I'm sure most of BP would agree. We each create or build our own wealth, i'm not about that life were i'd be blaming others for my misfortune. That is where this "white privelage" came from in these last few years, others blaming and pointing fingers for THEIR misfortunes.
I fundamentally and wholeheartedly disagree. I do not subscribe to the "pull yourself by the bootstraps" mentality. Best of luck with all that you do.
How can you not believe in pulling yourself up by your bootstraps”? It’s the American story. A very large % of the rich were not born to rich families.
I grew up eating cereal for 3 meals a day. Government cheese and powered milk. Know how I made $ as a kid? Got a paper rout before I was technically allowed. Picked nuts off trees and sold them door to door while asking to do odd jobs. Found out how to buy “fundraising” candy bars on my own and pulled them in a wagon too office buildings to sell.
How do you think most wealthy people get that way? How do you think most poor stay that way? Do you discount individual drive and effort and put it at the feet of the mythical systemic racist bogeyman?
The idea that "I did this, so all 7 billion people on the planet can do it too" is painting with far too broad a stroke. Many born into poverty have absolutely no resources to guide them towards building the skills that lead to self-sufficiency and building wealth. It's like handing someone a plane, a tank of fuel, and a "Piloting for Dummies" book and wondering why they can't figure out how to fly a plane on their own.
Exactly, Trudy and Nicole.
If you say something like "mythical systemic racist bogeyman", I truly have nothing more to say to you if that's something you mean.
5 Reply
Mike Fontaine
Property Manager · Leominster, MA · Member since 2017 · 53 posts · 16 votes
7y
@Evan Parker I love the line of thought and unfortuantly am only surface level knowledge on the topic so I won't put an uninformed answer in. But to your point as why investments are not focused on uplifting the people. Most investors are in investments to of course make a ROI do you have an idea of how to invest in the communities people that creates a return? Even with said investment wouldn't there be a level of people that would still have to be displaced because they refuse to seek the betterment themselves? Do you think this is almost a needed circumstance for REI because without these "deals" being available wouldn't prices climb to all time highs and in turn increase the rate of inflation and the amount of individuals that can't afford it? Once again my knowledge on this topic is general and my knowledge is minimal so more asking the questions based off of curiosity rather then assumption.
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Joel OwensBusiness Member
Moderator
Real Estate Broker · Canton, GA · Member since 2010 · 15k+ posts · 11k+ votes
7y
As a society the public tends to make excuses about why their lives are not where they want it to be instead of putting the hard and smart work in.
Show me someone with a bunch of excuses about why their life is the way it is and I can show you someone who has had just as hard a life or harder but still became a success. One is a victim mentality and one is a achieve success and never give up mentality. Those with the victim mentality decades later are still dreaming about EASY success with little or no effort needed. They often buy get rich quick programs that typically never pan out. Those who accepted it would be hard work but very fruitful and successful tend to have better outcomes.
I know people of extraordinary wealth in the 9 figures. They still like a deal. They do not hardly pay full value for anything. It's a mindset ingrained into their daily living. Even if you show everyone how to do it not many will follow it or say it is too hard and not worth it etc.
There will always be someone that takes an issue with what someone else is doing. Investors just have to work their plan and go out and do their own thing.
I invest in commercial in more affluent areas so the subject of this topic doesn't come into play as much. I am not much of a speculator on iffy areas. I find top cycle those area start doing well but as soon as down cycle happens they get hit the hardest. I see what some SFR are selling for inside Atlanta perimeter and I just shake my head. I remember when those houses were 200k then 2009 happened they went to 15k and now back up again. Investors that get in and out quick for those markets should tell other investors something that they do not believe or want to hold in those areas long term.
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Wendy Renae Bentley
Lindon, UT · Member since 2018 · 12 posts · 23 votes
7y
This is a great question! @Evan Parker this is happening in the neighborhood I grew up in - In fact my son bought a fixer upper in that very neighborhood -
The interesting thing is that it WAS more of a middle class if not upper middle class neighborhood when I grew up and has become a middle to lower middle class neighborhood because of several different things:
- Age of the homes
- Styles of the homes (very 70s looking)
- The ability of the aging generation to maintain the home.
So now this has become a neighborhood of starter homes. As the elderly leave or die the homes are being bought, flipped and sold to young couples just getting started - BUT even with all the upgrades the neighborhood will never attain its previous "high middle class" station - because of the style and age of the homes.
Another thing to consider -
What my parents paid $70,000 for in 1978, my son paid $160,000 for in 2017 (well his is smaller) BUT there are a couple of other differences -
- My parents - bought the home with a mortgage at the going rate of interest 14% - payment - $829
- My son - put in about 20,000 - refinanced the place at $180,000 (appraised value $280,000) interest 4% payment $859
It's hard to compare the same neighborhood 30-40 years later without comparing all variables - BUT do I think we add to the issue - for most of us I would say no - what we do increases the value to everyones home. But I can't say that it NEVER applies -
Once again great question - it drove me into introspection - very thought provoking.
1 Reply
John Hickey
Rental Property Investor · Chappaqua, NY · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 947 votes
7y
@Trudy Pachon
Racism is everywhere. I have no idea how to fix that.
Do you think your teaching stuff that will give them the ability to be rich?
Your school would need to move to a stadium if you could do that.
“ I work in the trenches with poor kids and families every day as a teacher, and I can assure you, they have plenty of drive.
Drive? Yes you need that But there is more.
The effort many of these families exert just to make ends meet is humbling to me.”
You mean they work hard? Or they concentrate focus have goals?
Yes they will need all that also.
Being humble? That’s a virtue I think. But that won’t help them get ahead.
Q for you. What lesson do you teach that will help them really get ahead in life How long is that lesson...who wrote it are we talking bill gates, warren buffet, a Rockefeller, a Morgan
5 Reply
John Clark
Member since 2018 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
7y
"The question Desmond raises, among others, is whether a home is a right or a privilege."
-------------------------------------
Housing is a human right. Where that housing is, however, is not a human right. Forcing one person (a landlord) to bear the cost of housing as a right (rent control) is wrong also. The costs of human rights should be borne by society in general.
2 Reply
Wayne Woodson
Investor · Nashville, TN · Member since 2009 · 483 posts · 228 votes
7y
I know that the Atlanta market is similar to Nashville and we are facing a similar issue here. I can rant on and on but the main issue I see here is all the new housing being built are targeting that higher end of the market. The bottom end not so much.
I'd say the solution is not more affordable housing. Instead, we need to make housing affordable. The process of getting grants from the state needs to be streamlined. It shouldn't take 5 years to get a grant.
We need more long term employment. I believe long term employment creates a strong middle class which creates a stable real estate market.
We need more low and median income housing. Again no one is really targeting this demographic everyone is chasing that high dollar.
We need more incentives to build low-income housing. Tax benefits, Grants, Rebate programs.
/Rant Over
3 Reply
Robert C.
Investor · San Francisco, CA · Member since 2016 · 338 posts · 444 votes
7y
@Cody L., @Trudy Pachon, @Jonathan Anderson, @Nicole Heasley Beitenman, I think getting into an argument about racism here may be going too far off topic. However, I just want to say for any of the landlords here who really think racism/systemic bias is an excuse, please just think about all the different things you've heard from other landlords about which "types" of tenants are more desirable than others. You may do your best personally to prevent bias in your own leasing standards, but there are clearly many landlords out there who have no issues leasing based on stereotypes. I wasn't in this business for more than a few days before I started hearing that kind of talk, so let's at least be a little bit honest about that. Forget systemic, the real estate industry is filled with blatant bias, and I'm positive most of us encounter it all the time.
2 Reply
Max T.
Investor · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2015 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
7y
buying a fixer and renovating with sweat equity is probably the best/cheapest way for a poor person to build wealth in this country
4 Reply
Trudy Pachon
Investor · San Diego, CA · Member since 2015 · 89 posts · 89 votes
7y
@John Hickey
Q for you. What lesson do you teach that will help them really get ahead in life How long is that lesson...who wrote it are we talking bill gates, warren buffet, a Rockefeller, a Morgan
Great question. I know we're off topic, but this is really really interesting. I teach the life science courses at my school, as well as a work prep class in biotechnology. I do chat with some of the kids about the Kiyosaki principles of understanding assets vs. liabilities, if they are interested.
But yes, I agree that financial literacy would be a GREAT subject for the kids. To get them to understand how money works, what it's good for, and what it's not so good for! I wish we had better programs for this. We would have less of these issues around messing up communities if more of the folks from them were educated around financial literacy! I think this is what you're alluding to. If so, I totally agree.
2 Reply
Jim K.
Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes
7y
Originally posted by @Cody L.:

Originally posted by @Jonathan Anderson:
Originally posted by @Maugno M.:

@Jonathan Anderson
I'm straight up mexican or chicano whatever you want to call it but i find it crazy to call yourselves privileged just because you're white. I'm sure most of BP would agree. We each create or build our own wealth, i'm not about that life were i'd be blaming others for my misfortune. That is where this "white privelage" came from in these last few years, others blaming and pointing fingers for THEIR misfortunes.
I fundamentally and wholeheartedly disagree. I do not subscribe to the "pull yourself by the bootstraps" mentality. Best of luck with all that you do.
How can you not believe in pulling yourself up by your bootstraps”? It’s the American story. A very large % of the rich were not born to rich families.
I grew up eating cereal for 3 meals a day. Government cheese and powered milk. Know how I made $ as a kid? Got a paper rout before I was technically allowed. Picked nuts off trees and sold them door to door while asking to do odd jobs. Found out how to buy “fundraising” candy bars on my own and pulled them in a wagon too office buildings to sell.
How do you think most wealthy people get that way? How do you think most poor stay that way? Do you discount individual drive and effort and put it at the feet of the mythical systemic racist bogeyman?
A little over half the wealth in this country is inherited but approximately 84% of the millionaire households in this country are headed by individuals who are not related to other millionaire households. The IRS is the source of the first statistic and Thomas Stanley (author of The Millionaire Next Door) came up with the second statistic after 20 years of research. It continues to hold true today according to his daughter's research.
I didn't used to believe the second statistic. in academia, when I was a humanities grad student, we constantly used to tell each other jokes like, "What's the first rule of life? Have rich parents." It was a given that the glittering rich passed their money down successfully, and the upper middle class only slightly less so. Getting past this mistaken belief, understanding that the overwhelming majority of $1M-$50M net-worth households in America get there themselves, is the greatest gift Stanley's work and research has given me.
Yes, there are truly massive wealth inequalities in this country. There are a very few people rich enough to buy democracy the world over in large bits and pieces. I continue to believe that is a problem. But $5M, $10M net worth? It's far more likely that these people have a story like Cody's. Or a number of other people whom I've met on this website and at real estate meetups. Or even, in what has surprised me most over the last ten years, me.
This society does not force people to stay broke. It does not hold them down and keep them there. It cons them into prisons of the mind, prisons of habit. It lies and it exaggerates and it seduces them into a belief system that keeps them broke by telling them it's A-OK to spend as much as they make, that money's great value is as a means of exchange and not as capital, as investment potential, as power.
8 Reply
Max T.
Investor · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2015 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
7y
Originally posted by @Trudy Pachon:

@John Hickey
Q for you. What lesson do you teach that will help them really get ahead in life How long is that lesson...who wrote it are we talking bill gates, warren buffet, a Rockefeller, a Morgan
Great question. I know we're off topic, but this is really really interesting. I teach the life science courses at my school, as well as a work prep class in biotechnology. I do chat with some of the kids about the Kiyosaki principles of understanding assets vs. liabilities, if they are interested.
But yes, I agree that financial literacy would be a GREAT subject for the kids. To get them to understand how money works, what it's good for, and what it's not so good for! I wish we had better programs for this. We would have less of these issues around messing up communities if more of the folks from them were educated around financial literacy! I think this is what you're alluding to. If so, I totally agree.
Last week we did a mini unit on financial literacy. Showed a couple of youtube videos summarizing rich dad poor dad, then had the kids play the cashflow classic game online.
1 Reply
Brandon Penn
Rental Property Investor · Erie, PA · Member since 2018 · 84 posts · 462 votes
7y
I am actively rebuilding neighborhoods in my area, and it could definitely be considered gentrification. I don't feel bad about it, as my city really needs to be rebuilt. These neighborhoods used to be great middle class areas with diverse ethnic groups throughout the city. We had a ton of immigrants settle in Erie, PA and set up areas considered "Little Italy", or "Little Poland".
As good paying jobs started to thin out we saw these neighborhoods turn into low-income areas. Crime had started to rise, and this great quiet city started to crumble. Many investors in the area (real estate and other businesses) have seen this and in the last few years have tried to turn it around.
As a real estate investor I try to buy up as much of a specific block as I can. I do major renovations and raise the rent significantly. This does price out a lot of lower income folks. I do however still work with the city section 8 to help offset this.
I don't feel bad one bit about rebuilding these neighborhoods. There are ways for lower income families to get help to be able to afford my properties, and most of the ones who can't, wouldn't pass my rental screening even if they did have the income.
2 Reply
Account Closed
Property Manager · Winston Salem, NC · Member since 2016 · 63 posts · 27 votes
7y
What I do when I go into these communities that I buy in, I rent out the homes/units for less than the highest rents by several dollars. The reason is because I don't want to battle against other losing tenants. I don't let my properties go down so Im not one of those that will give you lower rents for a exchange of not fixing anything. I buy my properties for pretty much nothing sometimes. Me doing this still allows families/people that qualify to live in the area that they grew up in or around.
Examples if rents are $800, I'll rent for somewhere in the high $600's. I can do this because unlike a lot of people I wont through top end things into my rentals and I do most of the work myself and I usually get my properties for $4,000-$13,000 and they usually don't need a lot of work. Some people including the city/county just look at a home and see that it's dirty and they say it's in bad shape. Most of them are solid homes that people give away or the city/county tear down.
I believe empty lots are worse than bad looking homes. Is gentrifying a area bad, well I think that if people want to keep their neighborhoods then they should not let their area go down. Take care of the homes. Yards are the first sign of an abandon home. People can volunteer to cut the grass. People can neighborhood watch and keep the crazy's from breaking into the homes. Keep kids from throwing rocks and breaking the glass. People can band together and buy the homes and split the profit or set up a fund and help out the elderly or homeless families. But people dont. They rather let people come in and buy up the area. Then send their friends and families over to ask what the rents are and then get mad when they can't have their kin or friends live near them.
6 Reply
Paul B.
Rental Property Investor · Dallas, TX · Member since 2015 · 501 posts · 504 votes
7y
Originally posted by @Chris Martin:

A few more serious questions I have: 'does gentrification always involve race? If not, ethnicity? Can white neighborhoods gentrify? Does the citizenry makeup change from area to area?' I ask these in all seriousness because I have spent, literally, zero dollars investing in gentrifying areas. I do know what they are, but until very recently haven't ever considered this property category for me and/or partners. And, yes, I'll start a new topic if that is more appropriate....
Yes, there are several neighborhoods in Boston that were once white working class and now they are white upper middle class. Gentrification certainly happened there, although perhaps it was slightly less controversial, because identity politics were not a factor...
1 Reply
Joel OwensBusiness Member
Moderator
Real Estate Broker · Canton, GA · Member since 2010 · 15k+ posts · 11k+ votes
7y
People can escape poverty. It's (how bad do they want it).
When my father was killed in a car accident when I was just 16 years old my mom and I were left with next to nothing except an old house that was falling apart and enough proceeds to survive maybe a year on.
I outworked physically many of the people out there having a fruit market job across the street from my subdivision when I was 14 years old. Back then it fell under farming and you could work unlimited hours. I would go to school and then work constantly. I had more money than most kids my age but also worked alot more than them. Back then I could use my age to my advantage for labor. As I got older and read more books and materials I learned to increase knowledge and skills with my mind. I would go to Barnes and Noble and read for hours at a time in the real estate section. The one book out of 5 or 6 that was really good I would take what little money I had and buy it to read it more intently at home.
I was determined no matter what to succeed and that I would have no excuses. My work ethic would create opportunities for success.
Everyday I am constantly learning no matter how much I think I know. You realize after awhile it is the journey of everyday learning and self improvement on all fronts of your life rather than a ONE THING that is going to achieve everything you want to be.
Sadly the masses get drawn in by guru's selling information and having them upping their credit cards to buy junk systems at so called free seminars. You can show people the way but if they won't take it or stay in denial keep looking for easy make them rich money then they will likely keep going nowhere.
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John Hickey
Rental Property Investor · Chappaqua, NY · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 947 votes
7y
@Trudy Pachon Financial literacy? Nope. That’s the problem with sending kids to school for twelve years and telling them they’re ready for the world. Education is daycare on steroids.
Teach them how to make money. Not balance a checkbook.
2 Reply
John Hickey
Rental Property Investor · Chappaqua, NY · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 947 votes
7y
@Max T. I’m not a fan of kiosaki. Car salesman to me. My opinion doesn’t matter tho does it work...... then teach it
The book that broke me through was the secret. Now that book isn’t going does as GOAT of get rich books but it worked on me.
0 Reply
William Coet
Lititz, PA · Member since 2013 · 595 posts · 272 votes
7y
Asian students are suing Ivy League Universities. They are required to have higher grades than others to get in. This is an example of legalized racism. Despite being discriminated against by universities, Asians and Indian Asians are the highest earning racial groups in the US.
1 Reply
Roberto Gutierrez
Nashville, TN · Member since 2017 · 95 posts · 91 votes
7y
I'll echo what many have touched on already. Job growth and population growth are what fuel the demand for many of these areas. You have your major employers downtown and as the population grows the employees want to be close to the city to help with their commute. They are willing to pay X amount to live in one of these gentrifying neighborhoods. Developers and flippers are just solving a problem which is lack of inventory for the people that have a need for the product. Gentrification is a result, but it wouldn't be possible if there wasn't a demand. The old homeowners in these areas are paid life changing amounts of money to move and no one is forcing them out. Some people don't like change i guess. If there weren't as many investors revitalizing these neighborhoods and less inventory as a result - can you imagine how high the prices would be then?
0 Reply
Jennifer Bryant
Rental Property Investor · Washington, DC · Member since 2018 · 30 posts · 38 votes
7y
I live in Washington, DC. I used to work at a community organization that helped tenants organize to purchase their building and convert them to Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives (DC has the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, TOPA, that gives tenants the first right to purchase when buildings are listed for sale).
Anyway, one day we went to door knock at a building in Brookland to let tenants know their rights. Almost every person that came to the door was a senior citizen or a child. It's a bigger issue than re-skilling people to get better jobs and being adaptable. Senior citizens and children make up a significant portion of the country's rising homelessness population and they are at the whims of the market. As someone else mentioned, it's a larger issue than real estate investing - it's a societal issue and an issue of the nature of capitalism.
Lastly, people lament identity politics but race and class matter in a society where the playing field has never been level. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein is a great book about how the housing market is not neutral.
7 Reply
William Coet
Lititz, PA · Member since 2013 · 595 posts · 272 votes
7y
Originally posted by @Jennifer Bryant:
I live in Washington, DC. I used to work at a community organization that helped tenants organize to purchase their building and convert them to Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives (DC has the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, TOPA, that gives tenants the first right to purchase when buildings are listed for sale).
Anyway, one day we went to door knock at a building in Brookland to let tenants know their rights. Almost every person that came to the door was a senior citizen or a child. It's a bigger issue than re-skilling people to get better jobs and being adaptable. Senior citizens and children make up a significant portion of the country's rising homelessness population and they are at the whims of the market. As someone else mentioned, it's a larger issue than real estate investing - it's a societal issue and an issue of the nature of capitalism.
Lastly, people lament identity politics but race and class matter in a society where the playing field has never been level. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein is a great book about how the housing market is not neutral.
You refer to historical problems, however there are currently racist laws that disciminate and disadvantage people based on the color of their skin. These are laws and policies that are written and exist today. I was raised to believe that all racism is bad, yet there are currently racist laws and policies in the US.
Despite these racist policies, Asian and Indian Asians earn more than any ethnic group in the US. I think this speaks to their cultural desire and ability to improve their lives.
0 Reply
Joe M.
Erie, PA · Member since 2018 · 413 posts · 348 votes
7y
Originally posted by @William Coet:

Originally posted by @Jennifer Bryant:

I live in Washington, DC. I used to work at a community organization that helped tenants organize to purchase their building and convert them to Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives (DC has the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, TOPA, that gives tenants the first right to purchase when buildings are listed for sale).
Anyway, one day we went to door knock at a building in Brookland to let tenants know their rights. Almost every person that came to the door was a senior citizen or a child. It's a bigger issue than re-skilling people to get better jobs and being adaptable. Senior citizens and children make up a significant portion of the country's rising homelessness population and they are at the whims of the market. As someone else mentioned, it's a larger issue than real estate investing - it's a societal issue and an issue of the nature of capitalism.
Lastly, people lament identity politics but race and class matter in a society where the playing field has never been level. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein is a great book about how the housing market is not neutral.
You refer to historical problems, however there are currently racist laws that disciminate and disadvantage people based on the color of their skin. These are laws and policies that are written and exist today. I was raised to believe that all racism is bad, yet there are currently racist laws and policies in the US.
Despite these racist policies, Asian and Indian Asians earn more than any ethnic group in the US. I think this speaks to their cultural desire and ability to improve their lives.
Which laws?
0 Reply
William Coet
Lititz, PA · Member since 2013 · 595 posts · 272 votes
7y
Originally posted by @Joe M.:

Originally posted by @William Coet:
Originally posted by @Jennifer Bryant:
I live in Washington, DC. I used to work at a community organization that helped tenants organize to purchase their building and convert them to Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives (DC has the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, TOPA, that gives tenants the first right to purchase when buildings are listed for sale).
Anyway, one day we went to door knock at a building in Brookland to let tenants know their rights. Almost every person that came to the door was a senior citizen or a child. It's a bigger issue than re-skilling people to get better jobs and being adaptable. Senior citizens and children make up a significant portion of the country's rising homelessness population and they are at the whims of the market. As someone else mentioned, it's a larger issue than real estate investing - it's a societal issue and an issue of the nature of capitalism.
Lastly, people lament identity politics but race and class matter in a society where the playing field has never been level. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein is a great book about how the housing market is not neutral.
You refer to historical problems, however there are currently racist laws that disciminate and disadvantage people based on the color of their skin. These are laws and policies that are written and exist today. I was raised to believe that all racism is bad, yet there are currently racist laws and policies in the US.
Despite these racist policies, Asian and Indian Asians earn more than any ethnic group in the US. I think this speaks to their cultural desire and ability to improve their lives.
Which laws?
Asians are required to have higher scores to get into universities, and this is why Harvard is being sued. Some people, based on their race and gender are required to perform better on tests when applying for jobs as firefighters and police officers. These are racist laws and policies.
0 Reply
Joe M.
Erie, PA · Member since 2018 · 413 posts · 348 votes
7y
Originally posted by @William Coet:

Originally posted by @Joe M.:
Originally posted by @William Coet:

Originally posted by @Jennifer Bryant:

I live in Washington, DC. I used to work at a community organization that helped tenants organize to purchase their building and convert them to Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives (DC has the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, TOPA, that gives tenants the first right to purchase when buildings are listed for sale).
Anyway, one day we went to door knock at a building in Brookland to let tenants know their rights. Almost every person that came to the door was a senior citizen or a child. It's a bigger issue than re-skilling people to get better jobs and being adaptable. Senior citizens and children make up a significant portion of the country's rising homelessness population and they are at the whims of the market. As someone else mentioned, it's a larger issue than real estate investing - it's a societal issue and an issue of the nature of capitalism.
Lastly, people lament identity politics but race and class matter in a society where the playing field has never been level. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein is a great book about how the housing market is not neutral.
You refer to historical problems, however there are currently racist laws that disciminate and disadvantage people based on the color of their skin. These are laws and policies that are written and exist today. I was raised to believe that all racism is bad, yet there are currently racist laws and policies in the US.
Despite these racist policies, Asian and Indian Asians earn more than any ethnic group in the US. I think this speaks to their cultural desire and ability to improve their lives.
Which laws?
Asians are required to have higher scores to get into universities, and this is why Harvard is being sued. Some people, based on their race and gender are required to perform better on tests when applying for jobs as firefighters and police officers. These are racist laws and policies.
*those arent laws
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