Chronic Renters: Is Homeownership Out of Reach for Black Americans?

Low to lower-middle-class Black people are losing access to the American dream. No longer just a matter of generational wealth-building, homeownership can have health benefits that chronically renting home dwellers might not experience to the same degree or with the same privileges.

1. Safety

People with mortgages want to live in safe places. Neighborhood watch and being your sista’s keeper are real. When you are buying not renting a home, people look out for each other. First, because it is the right thing to do, but even more so, safety is motivated by self-interest. If something unsafe happens to you and your property, it could also happen to them and their property. Looking out for each other also has the health benefit of peace of mind. The safer you feel and are, the more likely you are to take advantage of things that celebrate that safety. Think: lawn care, gardening, and just sitting outside on your own front porch or backyard patio, soaking up the sunshine and the vitamin D. This dream of homeownership is no longer as reachable a dream for all of us, however. The negative way that excludes some from this benefit impacts us as Black Americans. We have the extra hurdle of others perceiving our presence as unsafe. As a people we want to share in the American Dream and that includes safety for us no matter where we live. All Americans want to feel safe where they live. Why not us, too, (just not as a stereotype as the bearer of unsafety)?

2. Green options: Food and Flowers

Homeowners can take pride in where they live and boost the value of their homes by adding to the green options they enjoy, like gardening for food and flowers. They also put work and expense into lawncare or landscaping. Gardening by adding flowers and food, for example, also boosts physical and mental health.

Gardening has many health benefits. It is more than merely visually appealing. It is also a good form of exercise. It involves moving by walking and bending and using your arms for trimming, pushing, and lifting. With edible gardening, you can eat what you grow, save money on food, and afford to eat more healthy options. This is important because of the food desert that many low-income folks may face. Easy access to green options boosts mood mentally and provides time outdoors, allowing you to lose your thoughts amid the green spaces by putting worry aside for a while. Lastly, it is a source of pride. A nice yard, beautiful flowers, and bountiful vegetables can be shared with others, who can also return the favor and strengthen the community feel and bond between neighbors.

Container gardens on a patio or balcony or as part of a community garden can be nice, but nothing beats staring out at the green surrounding one’s home and knowing this land is yours: the fruit of your labor, time, and money. Owning the reality makes you a part of something greater. Discounting a growing group of people from this experience due to the rising costs of homeownership is unfortunate. A decreasing number of houses for sale puts owning a home of their own out of reach for chronic renters and deprives them of the health benefits that come from activities like gardening.

3. Strong neighborhood, strong community

Homeowners live in a neighborhood but are part of a community. Communities are where social health thrives. From cookouts on the deck to potluck dinner parties, we are social beings who need to get together from time to time. We need people. Homeownership gives you the option to be friendly or alone, but getting to know those you live around is possible.

Good neighbors are respectful and kind. People may seem friendlier because everyone is in the same boat of paying off a mortgage and dealing with property taxes. They have stakes in protecting their investment. You can greet others with a wave or start a friendship and find that you have something more in common with your neighbors than a shared subdivision. Your efforts depend on who you are and how social you want to be in the place where you have put down roots. Chronic renters can have people living to the left and right, above and below them in an apartment complex. Nevertheless, they still may feel isolated and ignored, with nothing any more real in terms of community than their friends on a Facebook page or what online communities can offer.

4. Stability

Stability cannot be overlooked or undervalued. No longer wondering how much your rent will be increased or having to put up with living in a box with the people next door making noise all night, you are more permanent and have chosen this place to be your home for the duration. The same goes for your neighbors as homeowners. You succeed at work and kids thrive at school because you are a part of a stable community, not transient. You have an oasis, a home of your own. You’ll be around for a while. However, if Black chronic renters are without the stability that home ownership offers, they are locked out of this key aspect of the American Dream. Stability fosters success personally, professionally, mentally, and physically.

5. Generational Wealth

Part of generational wealth is not just the focus on property possession over multiple generations, but it is ownership throughout the decades that the family can count on as stable and long-term. “Mama’s Place” becomes the home of “Lil’ Sis” then it passes to “Junior’s” generation and so on down the line. Chronically renting Black people for whom homeownership is out of reach may share in visiting but not in contributing to adding more property to this legacy or enjoying it as their own. These are not regrets for not experiencing owning their own home, but disappointments in not having access to owning something that means so much to so many in America.

These are the tales of the times in this country. With fewer homes for sale and fewer able to buy them, homeownership seems officially out of reach. There is nothing wrong with renting for a time or as a choice for many for a myriad of reasons. When renting is not a choice, but a default housing option despite wanting something different for you and yours, and that cost edges you out of the picture, then that is different. Already the lower availability of fewer choices for those with less puts chronic renters wanting to buy a home in competition with real estate investors swooping in to outbid, out-buy, and overcharge for rent. They have more financial resources than chronic renters seeking a “starter home” like a duplex, townhouse, or condominium.

So, we see the financial gap widening. It widens between the haves and have-nots. It widens between who lives better and longer and who does well mentally with peace of mind and a place of their own. It widens between surviving and getting by for us and our families. It widens between where the keys we hold fit to open doors to more opportunities that enable us to live in a place where we are welcome and feel like we belong.

These are the warning signs of changes rolling back. And we must not ignore this. We must notice this and decide what action is needed to move forward. Together we must figure out how to do so.

For those who have, let them not be the last who reach this goal. For those for whom homeownership is just beyond their reach, let us find a way to preserve, revitalize and someday realize their dream. Like so many who have gone before them, they want to own their own home. If this is no longer possible, let us act as a people for whom much has been promised, but not always delivered, and help them to repurpose their access to the dream in their hearts as they create an alternative dream worthy of them and a testament to their hard work and tenacity. We do realize, however, that few new dreams would be an adequate substitute in this sad, new reality.