RICHMOND, Va. — With affordable housing scarce in many cities across the country, including here in and around Richmond, Virginia, well-established urban neighborhoods are changing as prices rise and longtime residents struggle to keep up. In Richmond, you can see it happening in Church Hill, Jackson Ward, and Fulton.
But one Richmond man is bucking the tide of both historical and current trends to help keep families in their homes.
Damon Harris is on a mission.
Teal House, Harris’ nonprofit, is trying to reverse 100 years of history that has made owning a home so challenging for low-income families, especially African-American families.
“Teal House company has been working to reduce the negative impacts of gentrification and slow down the displacement of people,” said Harris.
WTVR Harris points out that the government’s so-called “redlining” guidelines to banks in the 1930s, which told them what neighborhoods to avoid as far as offering mortgage loans, was part of decades of exclusion for potential African-American homeowners.