KEYRIS MANZANARES: Carcia and Kevin Santiago are unpacking their belongings in their new kitchen, trying to figure out where to put everything.

They have more cabinets here compared to the apartment that they just lived in.

The Santiago's are settling into this house they bought last month in Virginia Beach.

In 2021, a study by personal finance website SmartAsset found that in this part of Virginia, Black people are closing the wealth gap.

CARCIA SANTIAGO: Homes build equity over time, and that equity, either you can refinance, you can take out a HELOC on a home and, you know, use that money to purchase another home.

And it's just the amount of money that you can build in a home is very, very important.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: For Carcia, the importance of homeownership was passed down in her family.

CARCIA SANTIAGO: When my parents first bought their home in Byram, Mississippi, we were the second Black family in our entire neighborhood.

And at that time, you know, my parents also set us down and they explained to us why that was.

Right?

Because a lot of Black people couldn't afford homes.

Even though you think that redlining doesn't exist today, like, we still know, you know?

A Black family can put their house on the market and if you bring a white family in, you know, the house is going to appraise higher than versus the Black family.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Historically, Black Americans have faced systemic challenges and discriminatory policies that have prevented them from achieving home ownership in Virginia.

LaTOYA GRAY-SPARKS: I think there are a host of historic events, policies and processes that have contributed to the disadvantage that African Americans are experiencing when it comes to wealth and home ownership.

A lot of it is rooted in redlining.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Redlining is both a term and a practice.

It was used by mortgage lenders and realtors to grade neighborhoods, ranking them from least risky to risky, or from A to D. Places labeled D were marked on a map, like this one, of Richmond, signaling spaces not worthy of home ownership or lending programs.

The D areas were often where Black people lived.

LaTOYA GRAY-SPARKS: The urban planning.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: For LaToya Gray-Sparks, learning about urban renewal and redlining made her realize that the geographies where she grew up in Richmond were geographies of isolation,limiting access to opportunities.

Now, Gray-Sparks makes her own maps to reclaim the narrative, like this map where she used a directory to show the businesses and families that made up downtown Richmond before urban renewal.

LaTOYA GRAY-SPARKS: I think that's what led to just this deep dive into, like, Black neighborhoods within Richmond and finding that the places that were declared to be blighted weren't blighted at all.

There were streetscapes that existed that could rival what we see here in the Fan or Museum District, but they're no longer around because they were demolished to make way for a highway or whatever other project the city was interested in.

DAMON HARRIS: Fees and bills due to hiring them.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Damon Harris, founder of Teal House Company in Richmond, says he's committed to reducing displacement, restoring equity, and finding ways to increase home ownership rates.

DAMON HARRIS: How much they're going to cost.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Harris says redlining and discrimination still affect aspiring homeowners today.

DAMON HARRIS: In 2023, the Black home ownership rate is the same as it was in the '60s or early '60s.

It's almost identical in certain areas to what it was pre-Civil Rights Act.

And so what we see, we see a great gap of almost 40% in certain communities.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: But Harris says millennials are contributing to the rise in Black home ownership rates.

The Santiago's agree.

CARCIA SANTIAGO: It's really home ownership that you're going to be able to build that equity and, again, that generational wealth.

I feel like we always come back to generational wealth, but that's the goal.

Right?