[contemplative piano music]
- Nathan Denzin: Historical wrongs like
blatant housing discrimination in Wisconsin.
- I am sorry.
We don't feel that we can rent to colored people.
- Nathan: The Federal Fair Housing Act
is supposed to protect renters or buyers
from discrimination based on a number
of protected classes, including race.
[dog barking]
However, discrimination in the housing market
has persisted in the 55 years since it became law.
- Tester 1: Is as or more prevalent today
than it has been in the past.
- Tester 2: The discrimination is a reality.
It's not hypothetical, it's not theoretical.
It still happens; it's just more subtle.
- Nathan: These two people, one white and one Black,
test for discrimination in housing
as a part of Wisconsin's Fair Housing Council,
a nonprofit that ensures realtors and landlords
follow the law.
They have been made anonymous to ensure
they can continue to test.
- Well, I'm not gonna rent it to you.
- I'm sorry? - I'm not gonna rent it to you.
- Nathan: This 1961 film was recorded in Madison
at the height of segregation,
but it was hidden by the University of Wisconsin
and never shown to the public until 2021.
Flash forward to today.
- Tester 2: In today's time, it's probably more subtle,
but they've already concluded
that they're not gonna rent you the apartment.
- Nathan: The two testers from the Fair Housing Council
recently toured the same apartment building
and found discrimination based on race.
- Tester 2: I went to an apartment building.
I asked if a unit was available October.
They said nothing was available.
- Tester 1: Yeah, they did show me more than one apartment,
so they were very, very eager to show me around.
- Nathan: However, the Black tester
had a different experience.
- Tester 2: But I never saw the actual unit
because it wasn't available.
- Tester 1: One thing I remember clearly about this
is that they were just so engaging
and they repeated, like, two or three times over,
you know, the amenities that they had.
- Tester 2: Then the person made a slip-up
and said, "Well, there was something available
in October, but that's gone now."
And so then you become aware of, like, what's going on
in the back of your mind.
- Nathan: On top of discrimination by landlords,
lenders like Associated Bank in Milwaukee, Racine,
and Kenosha were part of a recent $200 million
redlining settlement.
A federal complaint in the case alleged the denial
of mortgages to Black and Hispanic applicants.
- Many banks have been caught with their hands
in the cookie jar,
giving Black and Latino borrowers different loans
than they give whites.
- Nathan: Reggie Jackson educates people about diversity.
Jackson noted that despite the Fair Housing Act,
the Black home ownership rate
has not improved much since 1968.
Ranell Washington says that shuts Black families
out of the ability to create generational wealth.
- Housing is the cornerstone
to the beginning of a financial journey.
- There have been laws and policies that created
some of the disinvestment, the plight,
and the wrong that we're experiencing today.
Even if those laws were changed 50 years ago,
the consequences of them are still absolutely present.
- Nathan: Elmer Moore, Jr. and Ranell Washington
play critical roles in the Wisconsin Housing
and Economic Development Authority.
- It's about trying our best, honestly,
to correct some historical wrongs.
- Nathan: The duo cares deeply about evening historical gaps
caused by housing discrimination.
They provide affordable loans, rental units,
and mortgages to low-income individuals.
Plus, they invest in future housing or business projects.
- There's 147,000 families who've been able to buy homes
across the state because of the mortgages
WHEDA made available,
and they might not have otherwise been able
to afford those things.
- Making really intentional decisions to spur
affordable housing development in our inner city communities
is one of the ones that we definitely have a lens on.
- That's sequestering some resources
and intentionally investing in Black communities.
It's the right thing to do.
- Nathan: WHEDA has funded developments
in Milwaukee's Bronzeville neighborhood,
including The Griot,
which fashioned apartments out of an old schoolhouse.
- Elmer: It brought new businesses.
It obviously brought new residents.
It also does things like plants new trees.
- Housing is that cornerstone,
and from that, I can have conversations
about aspiring to be a entrepreneur.
- Nathan: Building equity in your house can spur
the creation of a second way to build wealth:
your own business.
And while Black-owned businesses have seen
an uptick in recent years, there is still a large disparity
between Black and white-owned businesses in Wisconsin.
- And our work does what lots of folks don't do,
primarily, is to center the needs of Black women.
- Nathan: Sabrina Madison is the founder
of the non-profit Progress Center
for Black Women in Madison.
- The first level that I really wanna see
is Black folks having more power in their pockets.
And I always go with the fact Black women
in Dane County on average in 2016 earned 57 cents
on every dollar made by white men.
I wanted to give Black women another option
to be successful.
- Nathan: To help close the gap,
the Progress Center provides Black women
with programming that includes financial health,
professional development, and entrepreneurship.
- Oftentimes, programming is very piecemeal,
where you gotta go to one side of town for this,
you gotta go somewhere for that,
you gotta wait on a phone call for this other thing.
And we wanted to sort of, like,
center all of your needs in one space.
- Nathan: Madison says her foundation
has helped hundreds of women create their own business
or secure a better job.
- I absolutely wanna see the rest of the state,
but more importantly, Madison and Milwaukee
extend its Black leaders through wealth creation
because with wealth, you have more power.
- Nathan: Despite the work of WHEDA
and the Progress Center,
Madison says everyone has to buy in
to make Wisconsin a more equitable place.
- So these visions that Black folks have
for their lives as Wisconsinites,
'cause we too are from Wisconsin and we too live here,
that you want to also be part of this vision
and see this vision expanded.
- Nathan: While that vision might take years
to be realized, Madison says the work starts today.
For Here & Now, I'm Nathan Denzin.