Redlining in Jacksonville: Information and Resources 

LISC Jacksonville has taken the lead locally on conducting a deep dive of redlining and the initial and long-term generational impacts it has had on Jacksonville’s communities, particularly communities of people of color.

LISC Jacksonville is developing a comprehensive Redline Report to explore the issue of redlining and inform the public. In the interim, LISC has published informational articles that explain redlining and have provided linke to addtional resources. 

Redline Articles by LISC Jacksonville
Article 1: Introduction to Redlining: What is “Redlining” and how has it impacted Jacksonville?
Article 2: Understanding the Demographics Behind Redlining

Additional Resources
To explouree the issue and concept of redlining in more detail, additional resources and information from a variety of sources beyond LISC Jacksonville's research are available here:

• Inequality in America: The History of Redlining and How It Still Affects Black Americans by NBC Washington
• “Redlining Does Not End”: Talking with Rebecca Marchiel on Housing and Racism by Public Books
• Planning for Equity & Underrepresented Communities by The Jaxson
• Neighborhoods: Riverview by The Jaxson talking about the ‘million-dollar suburb’
• Historial Redlining and Cardiovascular Health: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis by PNAS

Redline Report Methodology
To develop the Redline Report and related article series above, LISC Jacksonville used several source materials in an attempt to connect housing policies of the past to current community conditions in Jacksonville. This analysis utilizes four primary data sources:

• 1937 HOLC Residential Security Maps: This analysis uses a HOLC security map shape-file created by the University of Richmond’s Mapping Inequality Project detailing which neighborhoods were given various grades.
• 2020 ESRI Datasets: This HOLC shape-file was enriched using various ESRI Demographic and Economic data in ArcGIS Pro. These data enrichment results were then used to produce the graphs and analysis presented throughout the report. This method was chosen in an attempt to account for the significant geographic discrepancies present between current census tract boundaries and historic HOLC Grade boundaries. ESRI data apportionment algorithms weight US census block group data by geographic extent within the overlaid shape-file which can account for some of this variation.
• 2019 Duval Property Data: Additional analyses on current property conditions were conducted using 2019 property data from the Duval County Property Appraiser parcel file. Parcels from this dataset were assigned their historic HOLC Grades and IDs using a spatial join with the HOLC shape-file in order to link HOLC grading of the past directly to existing properties and their county records.
• Historic 1937 HOLC Descriptions: The original HOLC descriptions were used to generate the historic 1937 data referenced in the report. These descriptions included several data points such as home value ranges, rent ranges, racial composition, income ranges as well as other qualitative descriptions. These descriptions were read, systematized, and analyzed using a spreadsheet which forms the basis for the graphs and numbers provided in the report.

Source and ESRI methodology for spatial data enrichment:

• Mapping Inequality HOLC GIS Shape-file & 1937 HOLC Description Source Material
• ESRI US Data Background & Factsheet
• ESRI US Updated Demographics
• ESRI Data Providers
• ESRI Data Enrichment Methodology
• ESRI Data Apportionment Methodology
• 2019 Duval Property Appraiser Parcel Data
• HOLC Description Spreadsheet

The Horton Family:  Home Appraisal in Jacksonville

Mr. and Mrs. Horton

Some may recall the local news story that quickly became a national story last year about the Horton family’s home appraisal in Jacksonville. For those who don’t recall, Ms. Horton, an attorney, is black, and her husband, an artist, is white. The Hortons requested an appraisal to refinance their home and Ms. Horton met the appraiser during his visit. When the appraisal came back surprisingly low, the Hortons removed evidence of Ms. Horton’s ethnicity and requested a second appraisal. That appraisal came back on-par with other homes in the majority-white neighborhood, suggesting that race-based appraisal bias reduced the Horton’s home sale value.

However, this is just one example of housing discrimination that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) families have been experiencing for generations.

In the U.S., the racial wealth gap is so great that the average BIPOC family’s net worth is 10x less than that of the average white family. Homeownership is a key driver of this inequity, as indicated by Black families owning homes at rates 30% below white families. Furthermore, recent research indicates homes in predominantly Black neighborhoods are valued 23% less that similar homes in predominantly white neighborhoods, amounting to a $48,000 per-home difference in some cases. And, Jacksonville ranks #3 in the U.S. for the devaluation of homes in Black neighborhoods.

These massive gaps in homeownership are the result of years of systemic racism in housing policies, including racial covenants and redlining that have excluded Black families from buying homes in predominantly white neighborhoods and from receiving loans to improve their homes, and other practices.

“Homeownership is historically the most accessible way that American families and individuals build wealth for themselves and their heirs, yet that opportunity has been effectively denied to people of color for generations,” said Kristopher Smith, community development program officer for LISC Jacksonville. “We saw an incredible need to zero in on the root causes of this issue and formulate wealth-creation strategies to reverse this trend locally, with the ultimate goal of scaling this nationally.”

Earlier this year, LISC Jacksonville launched its Family Wealth Creation interventions aimed primarily at improving several impactful areas of homeownership among BIPOC families.

One of those areas includes addressing heirs’ properties in specific communities in Jacksonville. Starting in the Durkeeville and North Riverside areas, LISC Jacksonville and its partners, including Three Rivers Legal Services and others, have identified homes in which the current owners do not have clear title due to lack of estate planning or probate administration by the prior family owners. The result is that current owners – who are typically children or grandchildren of the prior owner – are unable to obtain home improvement loans, reap homestead exemption benefits, or leverage the home equity to start a business or pay for education. LISC and its partners are working with these homeowners to obtain clear title and estate plan to preserve their asset for generations to come.

“Based on our research, we have seen that many homeowners are not leveraging or maximizing property tax exemptions and are therefore paying more in taxes than they should – directly removing cash from their pockets that should be available for other purposes in life,” added Smith. “With our partners, we are providing homeownership counseling, helping people understand and access property tax exemptions, disaster recovery assistance, and mortgage refinancing options. All of these efforts cumulatively will help preserve assets and build wealth for the future.”

Part of LISC Jacksonville’s wealth creation and asset preservation efforts also include leveraging its Financial Opportunity Centers and facilitating home repair programs. LISC is also working with partners, including the University of Florida and others, to re-evaluate appraisal policies to enact systemic change in appraisal practices that perpetuate the history of devalued Black-owned assets.

By engaging the community and policy makers in these issues and solutions now, LISC Jacksonville anticipates preserving $100 million in housing value and $50 million in positive home revaluation in BIPOC neighborhoods by 2030. This year alone, LISC will preserve and sustain approximately $1 million in assessed home values in two primarily BIPOC communities.

“Our strategy with Family Wealth Creation is to disrupt discriminatory practices still embedded in current home values and neighborhood perceptions,” stated Smith. “By increasing earnings and income while reducing taxes and quality-of-life costs, we can change the financial trajectory of thousands of our BIPOC neighbors today, tomorrow, and for generations to come. The more we can stabilize home ownership and preserve and increase value, the more wealth that people of color can accrue, and we begin to narrow the significant racial gap in generational wealth.”