Levy Dollars in Action: Community Land Conservancy
By Yordanos Tesfazion
The United States’ history of exclusionary policies and discrimination explain many of the disparities that communities of color currently face. Despite the Civil Rights Acts that were passed in the 1950s and 1960s, present day inequities indicate that the country never stopped upholding unfair practices that have historically left communities of color behind.
Wealth inequality proves to be one of the most pronounced disparities in the United States. Not to be confused with income, wealth is “…the value of assets owned by a family or an individual minus outstanding debt,” and is accumulated over time. The country’s wealth gap tells the story of who’s been afforded the chance to build wealth and who hasn’t.
The 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances revealed that on average, white families in the United States had about six times more wealth than Black families and five times more wealth than Hispanic and Latine families. Since mean wealth is significantly influenced by a small percentage of extremely rich families, Asian American families reportedly had more wealth than white families because wealthy Asian Americans had more wealth than wealthy white folks while non-wealthy Asian Americans had less wealth than non-wealthy white folks.
Due to a small sample size, survey participants who identified as Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian, Middle Eastern or North African, and more did not offer enough statistical power to have their wealth compared to white, Black, Hispanic and Latine, and Asian American families. However, reports showed that they all had median wealth similar to Black and Hispanic and Latine families.
In the United States, race and wealth are inextricably linked. The nation’s long history of slavery and institutionalized discrimination has made it almost impossible for families of color to accrue enough wealth comparable to their white counterparts. This stark reality has far-reaching consequences that permeate nearly every aspect of life.
Wealth Begets Wealth
Those who have access to more money will also have more access to higher quality resources and options, making it easier for them and their families to climb upward on the socioeconomic ladder. It’s no secret that affluent communities have access to the best education, healthcare, housing, parks, and networks that foster upward mobility. So, what sets these rich, mostly white, neighborhoods apart from lower-income communities of color? Intergenerational wealth.
A luxury that’s often rewarded by chance, intergenerational wealth refers to financial assets like stocks, bonds, cash, real estate, businesses, and other profitable investments that get passed down from one generation to the next. One of the main ways intergenerational wealth is attained is through homeownership, a life milestone that’s become increasingly expensive every passing year.
Purchasing a home is a pricey investment not everyone can afford. Homeownership comes with ongoing costs like mortgage payments, property taxes, and maintenance and repair expenses that renters don’t need to plan for. Not to mention, failure to pay your mortgage in a timely manner—or at all—can lead to late fees, a hit on your credit score, and even foreclosure. Despite the additional bills and risks, homeownership is a financial burden that pays off in the long run.
The advantages of homeownership extend beyond financial stability. Regardless of income level, homeownership also promotes civic and social engagement and improves physical and mental health. Affordable housing advocates emphasize these benefits of homeownership because of the immediate and long-term positive impact it has on the most underserved and vulnerable communities.
The Case for Affordable Housing
While the country’s trend of wealth and housing inequity can only be reversed through a major overhaul of our current systems, through the power of community and passionate civic leaders, a more just future is still possible. Right here in King County, a land conservancy led by Black, Indigenous, People of Color is challenging what affordable housing means and how its implemented in their communities.
Since 2018, the Community Land Conservancy (CLC) has worked to acquire land in historically underserved communities and partner with residents to ensure that their wants and needs are centered in decisions about how undeveloped land should be used, with an emphasis on green and open spaces. The conservancy has a powerhouse of an Advisory Committee with Brad Brickman, Niesha Fort-Brooks, and Dr. Sean M. Watts on the team, as well as founding Co-Chairs and Emeritus Advisory Committee members Lylianna Allala and Paulina Lopez. Together, they support Nancy Huizar, CLC’s only staff member and a long-time South Seattle resident.
The CLC became a fiscal partner of Seattle Parks Foundation in 2019 because their reframing of affordable housing to best address the needs of underserved, low-income BIPOC in King County aligns with our strategic priorities: Equity, Health, Climate, and Community.
Shortly after their formation, the CLC received a grant from the Healthy Communities and Parks Fund (HCPF), which is part of the Targeted Equity Grant Program. The grant program is funded by the voter-approved 2020-2025 King County Parks Levy. $10 million in Parks Levy proceeds were allocated to the Targeted Equity Grant Program to support projects that increase access to recreation and use of parks, open spaces, and recreational facilities in underserved areas and communities. Furthermore, projects funded by the grant program are required to work towards reducing health disparities in various underserved communities and meet the unique needs of their residents. The CLC’s approach to affordable housing won’t just impact current residents of King County, but their descendants as well.
A Community-Led Solution
Our region’s reputation of being a progressive utopia paradoxically overshadows its past of dispossession, exploitation, and exclusion that’s shaped the current economic and social landscape. Atrocities such as the Treaty of Point Elliott and anti-Chinese riots of 1886 are just two painful reminders of the violence that was inflicted upon BIPOC residents during Seattle’s formative years.
According to ECOnorthwest, BIPOC residents in King County have lost between $12 billion and $34 billion in wealth because of legalized discrimination and segregation like redlining and racial restrictive covenants. In 2023, the King County Council cited the numbers in an update about approving “…a motion requesting the executive to provide recommendations to restore justice for race-based restrictive real estate practices…” Because these racial injustices have followed us into the present, there must be an attempt to rectify the wrongs of the past.
Government-backed initiatives can be helpful, but often present one too many barriers or are viewed as unreliable. Additionally, many organizations who position themselves as community resources for these affected populations are deemed untrustworthy due to the lack of sensitivity, trust, and relationships needed to effectively support communities of color. As a result, BIPOC have historically been pushed out from participating in solution-oriented conversations regarding the very communities they belong to.
A pressing concern of the CLC is the historic exclusion of BIPOC from environmental decisions, which has hindered their agency and concentrated wealth, expertise, and social capital in historically white-led (HWL) organizations while also limiting the effectiveness of environmental policy. By purchasing land and creating community-centered housing, greenspaces, and economic development plans, the CLC aims to build affordable, climate resilient neighborhoods in King County.
Ultimately, their goal is to have communities of color experience the social, economic, health, and environmental benefits of access to green and open spaces without being at risk of displacement—a phenomenon also known as green gentrification. The conservancy alleviates communities of color from having to choose between housing stability and access to green and open spaces while including them in that process.
Closing the Nature Gap
Studies have consistently backed the link between residential zip codes and life expectancy, health outcomes, economic stability, and educational and professional opportunities. The Opportunity Atlas, a data tool created by Harvard University and the U.S. Census Bureau, uses census and IRS data to examine the correlation between the average life outcomes children have as adults and the neighborhood they grew up in.
The tool confirms what experts have already shared and society has learned to accept: wealth begets wealth. Having the means to live in affluent neighborhoods nearly guarantees a future of health, stability, and prosperity. The racial wealth gap—shaped by the United States’ history of redlining and other forms of discrimination—has perpetuated a cycle of struggle that has kept BIPOC out of those communities for generations, making upward social mobility even more challenging.
A commonly overlooked byproduct of the racial wealth gap is the lack of green and open spaces in communities of color. Environmental justice studies have found that residents in well-off neighborhoods not only have better proximity to green and open spaces, but these spaces also tend to be larger and higher quality than those in lower-income neighborhoods.
Without equitable access to these spaces and in conjunction with the high levels of toxic pollution found in underserved areas, communities of color are deprived of benefits such as:
- Improved physical, mental, and cognitive health
- Access to a public space that encourages community engagement
- Low rates of violence in the community
- Cooler summers
- Cleaner air
For many communities of color, the addition of green and open spaces and the neighborhood amenities that come with them foreshadow an increase in property value and sooner or later, green gentrification.
What does that mean for BIPOC who, on average, have significantly less wealth than majority-white communities and are less likely to become homeowners?
The CLC’s land development and affordable housing plans prioritizes green and open spaces and the wishes of communities of color in order to eliminate the wealth barrier, fear of displacement, and the nature gap.
The Skyway Homeownership and Green Space Project
The CLC has successfully established themselves in their communities to build trust, provide their expertise in land use law, real estate development, and finance, and collaborate with strategic partners who share the same vision.
As an accredited representative of the communities of color they serve, the CLC is able to:
- Acquire, own and design public open space to serve the needs of their community
- Advocate for the simultaneous development of affordable housing and quality, public-accessible open space
- Benefit from partnerships with established conservancies, while maintaining authority over land use projects
For the past few years, they’ve been working alongside Skyway Coalition, Homestead Community Land Trust, and Skyway residents to complete the Skyway Homeownership and Green Space Project. An unincorporated area of King County, Skyway became one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the country after Black residents were pushed out of the Central District decades ago.
King County identifies Skyway as an “opportunity area,” due to the lack of open space and ongoing disinvestment in the neighborhood. Now, the surge in property value has residents worried about displacement—for some, a second time.
In a 2020 Seattle Times article advocating for economic development and affordable housing in Skyway, King County Council Chair Girmay Zahilay says:
“…despite its prime location next to the major commercial and industrial centers of Seattle and Renton, Skyway still lacks sufficient access to basic amenities and resources. It lacks a community center, accessible healthy food and grocery options, and sufficiently developed streets and sidewalks. Seventy-five percent of its buildings are more than 40 years old. The area doesn’t have access to rapid transit, thus restricting the flow of funding for critically needed affordable housing. The childhood poverty rate in Skyway is three times as high as the countywide median. Exacerbating all these issues is the fact that Skyway does not have a city council or a mayor looking out for it. Consequently, it relies on its regional government, King County, to perform most of the functions of a local government, which for many reasons is neither sustainable nor equitable.
The residents of Skyway have been advocating tirelessly for resources as well as protection for their community because they know what’s waiting around the corner. The economic tsunami that pushed out the seniors, people of color, working class and low-income residents of Seattle’s core is coming for them next.”
The plan for the Skyway Homeownership and Green Space Project is to transform a lush, underdeveloped 14-acre plot of land and build about 55-57 affordable homes. Surrounding green and open spaces have the potential for walking trails and neighborhood amenities including a playground and an urban farm, which will also conveniently help address food insecurity and provide opportunities for green job training programs.
To reduce the negative impact of displacement, the CLC, Skyway Coalition, and Homestead Community Land Trust prioritize BIPOC who are current or former Skyway residents. When the project is completed, first-time buyers will have the chance to purchase affordable homes and enjoy the perks of green and open spaces without fear of green gentrification.
Traditional affordable housing developers far too often overlook the need of having parks and green spaces in the vicinity of their projects. Similarly, those leading parks and green space projects fail to consider the accessibility of those spaces for those living in affordable housing. The CLC aspires to provide both needs—affordable housing and parks and green spaces—through their community-driven design and review process. The Skyway Homeownership and Green Space Project has been able to incorporate affordable housing, access to nature, climate justice, and economic development (through green jobs) because of intentional collaboration with the community.
The integration of affordable housing with green and open space development effectively eliminates the need for intergenerational wealth to reap the benefits of the social, economic, health, and environmental benefits accompanied with living in close proximity to such spaces. Notably, the Skyway Homeownership and Green Space Project “offers lasting benefits, preventing displacement and enabling wealth building through ownership while providing ongoing homeowner support.”
In Washington state, BIPOC would need to buy more than 140,000 houses to achieve parity with white homeownership. Although the Skyway Homeownership and Green Space Project will only enhance the quality of life of a few dozen families, it provides a solid framework that can be replicated by government agencies, community groups, and other organizations.
Again, while it’ll take more than just affordable housing projects to address the United States’ legacy of wealth and housing inequities, the collaborative work of civic leaders and their communities prove that a more just future is possible.
Connect with the Skyway Homeownership and Green Space Project team:
- Community Land Conservancy: Email, newsletter
- Skyway Coalition: Email, newsletter
- Homestead Community Land Trust: Newsletter
Save the Date: Primary Election Day, August 5
The CLC is just one of many organizations whose work is supported by the $810 million King County Parks Levy. The levy is set to expire at the end of the year, but King County voters can vote for its renewal on August 5, 2025.
This time around, the main themes of the levy are: Maintain, Enhance, Grow & Connect. If renewed, $1.45 billion will cost homeowners $16.38 per month, only $2.50 more than what folks are currently paying for the 2020-2025 Parks Levy.
Investing in the maintenance and enhancement of outdoor open spaces creates more opportunities for community members to grow and connect with nature and each other.
Mark your calendars and set a reminder to vote on Tuesday, August 5, so initiatives like the CLC’s Skyway Homeownership and Green Space Project continue to receive funding for the next six years!
Sources:
Greater Wealth, Greater Uncertainty: Changes in Racial Inequality in the Survey of Consumer Finances, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Redlining and Wealth Loss: Measuring the Impacts of Racist Housing Practices in King County, WA, ECOnorthwest
Green spaces for whom? A latent profile analysis of park-rich or -deprived neighborhoods in New York City, Eunah Jung
We failed the Central District, but we must do right by Skyway, Girmay Zahilay
Research series: How does homeownership contribute to social and civic engagement?, Habitat for Humanity
‘What’s the difference between income and wealth?’ and other common questions about economic concepts, Pew Research Center
Wealth Inequality Among Asian Americans Greater Than Among Whites, The Center for American Progress