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Kamala Harris Calls for $100 Billion to Close Racial Homeownership Gap Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren Introduce Racial Equity Plans
(about 3 hours later)
Senator Kamala Harris of California on Saturday announced a plan aimed at reducing the racial gap in homeownership, including $100 billion to help black families and individuals buy homes in historically redlined communities. It was a big day for plans, and Senator Elizabeth Warren rubbed her hands together almost gleefully as she said, “I’ve got a lot of them.”
Speaking to the Essence Festival in New Orleans — the annual music and culture festival sponsored by Essence magazine, which caters to black women — Ms. Harris outlined the housing proposal, designed to allow people of color to buy homes in places where they had been systematically denied loans. But at the Essence Festival in New Orleans on Saturday, she was not the only one with a plan.
Several other presidential candidates were scheduled to appear at the festival Saturday as well. Ms. Warren and Senator Kamala Harris of California both used the occasion — the annual culture and music festival sponsored by Essence magazine, which caters to black women — to introduce major new proposals intended to address racial disparities, including in wealth and homeownership.
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey and former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas also spoke at the event.
Ms. Harris announced a plan aimed at reducing the racial gap in homeownership, including $100 billion to help black families and individuals buy homes in historically redlined communities, where banks systematically denied them loans. The money would help cover down payments and closing costs for up to four million families or individuals, providing home buyers with up to $25,000 each.
[We tracked down the 2020 Democrats and asked them the same set of questions. Watch them answer.][We tracked down the 2020 Democrats and asked them the same set of questions. Watch them answer.]
The money would help cover down payments and closing costs for up to four million families or individuals, providing a maximum of $25,000 each. Ms. Harris also called for stronger laws against housing discrimination; for more funding for financial literacy education; and for major changes in the calculation of credit scores, which lenders use to determine interest rates and eligibility for loans.
Ms. Harris is also calling for stronger laws against housing discrimination; for more funding for financial literacy education; and for major changes in the calculation of credit scores, which lenders use to determine interest rates and eligibility for loans.
Currently, credit scores are based on payment history for things like credit cards, auto loans and mortgages, which many people of color don’t have. Ms. Harris’s plan would require credit reporting agencies to include rent, phone bill and utility payments in their calculations as well.Currently, credit scores are based on payment history for things like credit cards, auto loans and mortgages, which many people of color don’t have. Ms. Harris’s plan would require credit reporting agencies to include rent, phone bill and utility payments in their calculations as well.
Her campaign projected that eliminating the homeownership gap would increase the median wealth of black households by about $32,000, and that of Latino households by about $29,000. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has announced a similar plan. Her campaign projected that eliminating the homeownership gap would increase the median wealth of black households by about $32,000, and that of Latino households by about $29,000. Ms. Warren, of Massachusetts, had announced a similar plan.
“Join me as we right what is wrong and write the next chapter of history in our country,” Ms. Harris said. “The fight of black women has always been fueled and grounded in faith and in the belief of what is possible.”“Join me as we right what is wrong and write the next chapter of history in our country,” Ms. Harris said. “The fight of black women has always been fueled and grounded in faith and in the belief of what is possible.”
Ms. Harris’s speech — and a question-and-answer session afterward with the Rev. Al Sharpton and Michelle Ebanks, the chief executive of Essence Communications — also touched on health care, student loans and abortion. Ms. Harris also said that if elected, she would seek to require the Justice Department to review the constitutionality of any abortion law passed by a state “that has a history of interfering with a woman’s access to choice” — a process, known as preclearance. The Voting Rights Act required similar review for voting-related laws until the Supreme Court’s Shelby County v. Holder ruling in 2013.
She said that if elected, she would seek to require the Justice Department to review the constitutionality of any abortion law passed by a state “that has a history of interfering with a woman’s access to choice” — a process, known as preclearance, that the Voting Rights Act required for voting-related laws until the Supreme Court’s Shelby County v. Holder ruling in 2013. Every year, the federal government awards $500 billion in contracts to companies that, altogether, employ about a quarter of the country’s workers. Ms. Warren’s plan, which she released on Friday and described to the audience on Saturday, calls for an executive order that would require the recipients of those contracts to diversify their workforces, and pay women and people of color equally.
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey and Ms. Warren were scheduled to speak at the Essence Festival later in the day, as was former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas. Two lower-polling presidential candidates — Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado and Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York — gave brief addresses in the morning. “It’s up to the federal government to say what the terms of those contracts are,” Ms. Warren said. “It’s not enough to talk the talk about equal pay for equal work. It’s not enough to talk the talk about the diversity of your work force. You’ve got to walk the walk, or you’re not getting those federal contracts.”
This article will be updated as more candidates speak. Under her proposed executive order, contractors would be barred from asking about past salaries and criminal records, and from using forced arbitration and noncompete clauses. Another component of the plan is meant to diversify the federal government’s own work force.
Ms. Warren also called for a $7 billion federal fund to invest in businesses owned by people of color and women, noting — as Mr. Booker did, too — that it is far easier for white Americans to start a small business than for black Americans, who receive a tiny fraction of the country’s venture capital.
“We start to close the gap,” she said, “by using the power that the president herself will have.” At the word “herself,” the audience broke into applause.
Mr. Booker, too, addressed the racial wealth gap, calling for “the largest pool of capital for nontraditional entrepreneurs in our country’s history” and highlighting his proposal to create savings accounts for every child born in the United States.
The accounts, which Mr. Booker calls “baby bonds,” would start with $1,000 for each child, and families below a certain income threshold would receive additional contributions of up to $2,000 a year.
“A paycheck will help you get by, but wealth in America is what lets you get ahead,” he said.
Mr. Booker also emphasized his proposals on gun violence, an issue in which he has gone further than some other candidates. Perhaps the most ambitious of his plans is a national gun licensing program. And, pressed on what he would do for black women, he reiterated a pledge he made in the spring to create an “office of reproductive freedom” within the White House.
The office would oversee policymaking on issues like abortion, contraception access and maternal mortality, he said.
Two lower-polling presidential candidates — Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado and Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York — gave brief addresses at the Essence Festival in the morning, and former Mr. O’Rourke was scheduled to speak later in the day.
This article will be updated.