Dr. Brian Smedley Co-writes Article Highlighting the Long Term effects of Housing Discrimination

The Effects of Housing Discrimination on Health Can Reverberate for Decades

By Brian Smedley and Rachel A. Davis

Last year, reporters at the Center for Investigative Reporting combed through 31 million mortgage lending records in dozens of U.S. metropolitan areas. Their reporting, which nearly landed them a Pulitzer Prize, revealed that racial discrimination is alive and well in mortgage lending today.

While Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson may not have read this report, he certainly knows that housing discrimination is not just a relic of the past. So why would he propose to throw away a key tool we need to fight against it?

The Center for Investigative reporting analysis, For People of Color, Banks are Shutting the Door to Homeownership, did make it across our desks. Even though we work in public health, not at HUD, we know that housing discrimination is critically important to our field. That’s because housing discrimination can have severe and lasting consequences for Americans’ health (Read more).