The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented time of widespread social isolation, and financial, food and housing insecurity that affected our Black and Brown neighbors at the highest rates in Pennsylvania and across the country. Now more than ever, it is time for organizations to take action on racial equity in their corporate structures and systems.

The affordable housing industry was founded to further anti-racist principles, and the disinvestment and racist policies that have devastated communities, hampering the health, well-being and wealth-building for Black and Brown people and marginalized communities of color.  We believe that moving forward, using anti-racism as a cornerstone of our values will help guide the decision-making of this organization, how it serves its members, and build our community.

In order to continue supporting our  industry, please feel free to use the resource on this page that members have found useful as they look at how they approach future work.

Books

• The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present by David Treuer
• When Affirmative Action was White:  An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America by Ira Katznelson
• Race for Profit:  How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
• The Color of Law:  A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
• Stamped from the Beginning:  The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
• How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
• White Rage:  The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson
• White Fragility:  Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin DAngelo and Michael Eric Dyson

Articles

• What is Owed:  Without Economic Justice, There Can Be No True Equality by Nikole Hannah-Jones
• The Case for Reparations by Ta Nehisi-Coates
• America’s Long Overdue Awakening to Systemic Racism by Justin Worland
• A Look at Housing Inequality and Racism in the U.S. by  Dima Williams